The Legend of Ganondorf Dragmire OLD VERSION
by Sasha Wren
Summary: THIS STORY HAS BEEN REVAMPED AND MOVED. Please check my profile for the new one
1. Prologue

**A/N: Version 2.0! Hopefully this rewrite will be better, with better continuity HAH**

**A couple of important notes: This story is a sort of OoT retelling, with a much more in-depth world. I've taken the skeletal plot of Ocarina and crafted a somewhat new story from it, incorporating the civil war that occurred beforehand. It's mostly from Ganondorf's perspective, depicting how he became the bad guy of the game. **

**I've changed some things around - basically, if you think of the actual game as a sort of mythological telling of the story, like a tale kids might hear about how the child hero saved Hyrule after the civil war, then you're all set. **

**Lastly, some things in this story are not for young readers. That's why it's set to a T rating!**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>Ildrin gazed down at the tiny bundle held firmly in King Daltus' arms with a tight-lipped smile. The baby wasn't squirming or putting up any fuss, eyes closed off to the world around them. And as happy as Ildrin felt concerning the birth of the new princess, she knew her joy was a result of her own baby boy left safely behind at their estate not far beyond the city walls. As much as she trusted her midwife and faithful servant Lanna, she hadn't wanted to leave him. But Cedric told her it would be disrespectful to not join him in the princess' private viewing, especially when her presence was requested by the Queen. So Ildrin let Lanna tighten a stiff corset around her torso and drape a gown of pale lavender over her body. Purple was, after all, the Queen's favorite color.<p>

So as Ildrin stood to Cedric's left, watching the proud King cradle his newborn daughter in his large, thick arms, she thought of her own boy, and how it felt to hold him against her breast. She knew how the King felt, but also knew how Queen Petra felt as she stood rigidly behind her husband, gazing intently at her baby girl. She could not hold her child at this moment, just as Ildrin could not hold hers.

Cedric stepped up to the King and bent to one knee, ducking his head in a respectful bow.

"Cedric," said King Daltus, a warm smile curling beneath his thick brown mustache. "How wonderful of you to join us."

Cedric stood and turned his eyes to the princess. "She's lovely, sire."

The King muttered his thanks, and Ildrin took the time to step up and lift her dress's hem in a bow. It was customary for the wives of invitees to move second to their husbands. Ildrin often wondered how the traditions that put women second to men came about, considering the significance placed upon a female heir to the throne. But she'd never spoken to anyone of her thoughts, not even Lanna. She dipped her head toward the Queen.

"Lady Ildrin," said the tall woman, straight brown hair tucked behind delicately pointed ears. She was wearing a gown of purple and silver, and a thin gold tiara rested lightly atop her forehead. "Thank you for coming."

"Of course, my queen," said Ildrin. "From one mother to another, I give you my most sincere congratulations."

"Ah, yes," King Daltus said, turning to Cedric again. "You have recently become a father yourself, haven't you?"

"That is correct, sire," Cedric said, his own green eyes shining with an indescribable amount of joy and pride. "A healthy boy."

"Wonderful," said Daltus. "It must be quite a prosperous season."

"Hopefully it will last," said Petra. Ildrin cast a long glance at her, blue eyes widened slightly beneath her golden-yellow eyebrows. The Queen's tone was hopeful, but with a hint of somberness that made Ildrin's heartbeat quicken. It was no secret, however, that the Royal Family had plenty on their minds despite the wonderful news of a female heir. It was a difficult time for everyone who stood there beneath the high ceiling of the castle's parlor. The heavy pall of tension hung over their heads, dragged relentlessly at the smiles on their faces. It was one of the main reasons why Ildrin did not want to leave her son back in the manor while they spent the evening in the castle. And as Petra said her words, Ildrin knew in that moment that despite all gallant appearances and joy-filled conversations, the regal Queen was just as frightened as she was.

"Let's not have that kind of talk, dear," King Daltus said, looking down at his daughter with warm blue eyes. Every direct descendant of the first members of the Royal Family had vivid blue eyes, no matter what other features they displayed. They contrasted the pale brown of Petra's, who once belonged to a house of nobility in the distant city of Farheln. She was Hylian, though, and that was the only true requirement for becoming queen of the Royal Family.

As it stood, the terms "king" and "queen" were not all too accurate. The kingdom expanded a few hours' walk in each direction: Kakariko Village to the north, Lon Lon Ranch to the southeast across the river, and Lake Hylia to the west. There was more to the land—much more. But upon sending scouts past the familiar landmarks, the Hylians found that the rest of the land was inhabited by a whole array of species, several of them humanoid. One race resembled the Hylians completely, save for their rounded ears. They called their homeland Hyrule. And centuries later, King Daltus planned on unifying the country under one banner: the Kingdom of Hyrule under his rule.

Someone shouted loudly outside the parlor entryway. The people inside turned their heads in unison to see a Hylian guard stumble in, armor clanking noisily with every fumbling step. "Your Highness!" he called, voice muffled from behind the shielded helmet atop his head.

King Daltus passed the princess delicately over to her mother, who took her with an apprehensive smile. "What is the meaning of this?" he said, tone not angry but not pleased either.

"Forgive me, sire," said the guard, breath coming in short gasps from his climb up the hill to the castle. "Rebels, in Castle Town."

Rebels, Ildrin thought. That's what they were to anyone siding with the Royal Family for unification. Ildrin herself was born and raised in Castle Town, but in one of the lower-class district of Falden which was inhabited mostly by round-ears with the occasional Goron or Zora family. Most of the Hylians of Castle Town lived in the much more beautified districts, without starving children in the streets.

"Rebels?" Daltus said in contemplation. After a moment, he turned to the many well-dressed Hylians men around him. "You have a duty to your king, and to your city. Cedric." He turned to Ildrin's husband. "I trust as a blacksmith you have apt ability with a sword."

"Certainly, Your Highness," Cedric said.

"We cannot let the rebels reach the castle," Daltus continued. Ildrin noticed a hint of primal, fatherly determination in his eyes as he stepped forward. "They probably planned for my daughter's viewing. They _cannot_ get to her."

Ildrin turned to Cedric. "You must fight?" she said quietly.

"I cannot leave now," he said. "But you have to return home. Make sure our boy is safe." Ildrin nodded, brow furrowed slightly. Cedric brushed a yellow lock of hair behind her pointed ear and kissed her forehead. "Ride safely."

Ildrin regarded him solemnly. She wanted to tell him to fight safely, to not do anything foolishly "honorable." He had a son to think about now. But she only watched him as he followed the other men out of the castle parlor.

"I suppose the official announcement has been cancelled," Queen Petra said as she looked anxiously at her husband. Daltus simply gave her an apologetic look before striding out of the room, following his men.

Ildrin walked over to Petra slowly and gazed down at the princess. "She needs no announcement," she said with a comforting smile to the Queen. "Her name is already known to all in Hyrule, whether their ears are sharp or round."

"It's true, Your Grace," another woman said, stepping up. "Even those who worship a false pantheon know the significance of your daughter's birth."

Petra looked down at her tiny child, whose large blue eyes had peeked open from the commotion. She smiled warmly, eyes crinkling at the edges. "My little Zelda," she whispered.

Ildrin rode out of the castle grounds alone, leaving the horse Cedric had come in on behind for him to make it back later. Moving swiftly, she skirted the edges of Castle Town as surreptitiously as possible; it wasn't as difficult as she'd imagine, since nearly all of the fighting was occurring in her home district of Falden. It was easy enough to guide her steed through the back alleys of the market district and across the drawbridge without being detected. It would have made more tactical sense to ride through Castle Town and exit through the west gate, but she couldn't risk encountering the rebels. She had to make it home to her son.

She reached the estate quickly enough and dismounted just inside the gate so one of the servants could take the horse to the stables. Ildrin walked briskly to the front doors, waiting anxiously as the doorman opened it.

"Lady Ildrin," the short man said, black hair emphasizing his slightly darkened skin. He was by no means purely Hylian. "You're back so soon." He looked behind her. "And without Sir Cedric."

"Fighting has broken out in the city," Ildrin said, breathing heavily. "Where is Lanna?"

"Upstairs with the baby," said the doorman. He closed the door as Ildrin hurried inside. She couldn't quite place it, but worry settled deeply in her thoughts. She strode across the wide foyer and climbed the open staircase to the balcony-like second floor. She turned to the right and entered the nursery in a flustered daze.

"My lady!" Lanna gasped, holding the baby to her chest instinctively.

Ildrin walked over and took the baby into her arms. She stared down at his pale face, mushy with newborn fat. He seemed to be sleeping soundly, nostrils flaring gently with each breath.

Ildrin smiled. "I'm sorry, Lanna," she said, still looking at her son. "The announcement was cancelled. Some Dinborne rebels attacked Castle Town."

Lanna, an image of messy dark brown hair and hyperbolic exaggeration, held both hands to her open mouth with wide eyes. "No!"

Ildrin seemed infinitely calmer now that her son was in her arms. "Cedric went with to fend them off," she said. "I'm sure they'll be fine."

"And what about the princess?" Lanna said.

"She is with the Queen," said Ildrin. "She is quite a beautiful child."

Lanna let a smile perk her expression. "Hopefully the fighting won't reach the castle. Or here, for that matter. With Sir Cedric gone, we don't stand a chance."

"As I said, I'm sure we'll be fine."

Ildrin knew she was living in one of the darkest times of the Royal Family's history. Of course, being of higher class after marrying Cedric, she didn't have to worry about the same things that those in Falden did. But with her son in her arms, she saw a brighter future past all this fighting. It was only in that moment however that she realized there wasn't much hope in staying where she was. Castle Town was the center of all conflict now, and if she wanted her child to prosper, she'd have to leave.

"My lady," Lanna said. "Would you like Ranji to make some dinner?"

"That would be lovely," Ildrin said. "Thank you."

The young round-eared girl nodded and stepped out of the room. Ildrin took a seat on the padded chair beside her son's cradle, head swimming with new thoughts of the young Hylian princess. Her name had been determined for her long before King Daltus was even born, let alone Ildrin herself. Every female heir received the name Zelda, just as much as they received their bright blue eyes. It had been tradition for nearly five centuries now, after the first ordained Queen of the Hylian people. The legends told that the first Zelda was the mortal reincarnation of their goddess, their heavenly mother Hylia, who sacrificed her own immortality for the salvation of her people. Although she'd never admit it out loud, Ildrin thought it was a little far-fetched. Anyone claiming to be the reincarnation of a god was probably looking for power. But her Hylian ancestors followed Zelda faithfully, leading to the establishment of a Royal Family.

The tradition followed that every female heir was to be named Zelda in her honor, with the belief and hope that she would be another incarnation of the mortal goddess. It was another aspect of the Hylian faith that Ildrin didn't seem to put much weight on, since there had been many Royal Family princesses that did not seem to bear the wisdom associated with the namesake. But something about the circumstances caused something to glimmer in Ildrin's heart. Especially as she gazed down at her little boy, a thin veil of blond hair coating his soft head. For another legend accompanied that of the princess, the legend of the Hero of Time. It said that the two would return to the world at its darkest hour. And if Ildrin believed anything, it was that the land was certainly in need of a hero.

"Lady Ildrin," Lanna said from the doorway. Ildrin hadn't noticed her appear. "Your dinner is ready."

"So quickly?" Ildrin said.

"Ranji had everything prepared to be cooked for when you and Sir Cedric returned," said the servant warmly. "It didn't take too long."

Ildrin stood from her chair, placed her son into the cradle beside it, and stepped into the corridor where Lanna was waiting patiently. "Thank you, Lanna," she said. "Please look over my son while I'm dining."

"Of course, Lady Ildrin," Lanna said, bowing and stepping into the nursery. But she turned suddenly before closing the door. "My lady, if you don't mind me asking…" Ildrin paused and turned to her maid. "Have you chosen a name for the boy?"

Ildrin smiled lightly. "I shouldn't make a decision without my husband's input, but I do have an idea."

Lanna nodded with a wide smile. "I do look forward to hearing his name spoken out loud for the first time. Forgive my prying, my lady."

"It's no trouble," Ildrin replied. "As soon as I speak with Cedric on the matter, I'll let you know promptly."

"Thank you very much, my lady. I appreciate it." Lanna bowed her head one last time and closed the door behind her.

Upon entering the dining hall, Ildrin was surprised to see a messenger waiting by her seat at the table. "Am I to take it that my doorman has let you in to see me at my own dining table?"

"Yes, Lady Ildrin," the messenger said. "Lord Ganondorf sends his condolences."

Ildrin did not sit down. The name was terribly familiar. "Lord Ganondorf?"

"He is the leader of the Gerudo," the messenger said. "He was in town for the princess's announcement tonight."

"Yes, of course," Ildrin said. "What condolences, exactly?"

The messenger bowed his head deeply, hands clasped behind his back. "That is my message, my lady. A battle has reached the castle, and it is slowly making its way to your estate and the surrounding districts of Castle Town. Sir Cedric tried to battle off many of the rebels, but sadly, his attempts failed." He paused, giving Ildrin a chance to contemplate the news. "Lord Ganondorf fought off and killed the man who murdered your husband, and had me send the news."

Ildrin stood there for a minute, eyes never leaving the messenger's emotionless expression but thoughts never leaving her late husband and newborn son. Her jaw had set, and her brow furrowed, but she never let any other emotion aside from what looked like slight distaste reveal itself on her face. After another moment, she cleared her throat. "Thank you, messenger. I would have you help yourself to a meal in kitchen before you leave, but you may find it more appropriate to find your family as soon as possible."

The young man bowed his head. "Of course, Lady Ildrin. Thank you." He departed to follow a servant down the corridor.

Ildrin then collapsed into the seat before a covered dinner plate. She rested her face in her open palm, eyes still wide, feeling the raw ache of sadness clawing at her ribcage. Just as she started thinking about hope and prosperity for Hyrule, one of the most important people in her life vanished.

But she had to clear her head. The messenger mentioned that the battle was gradually making its way toward her estate, an estate that now belonged to a helpless infant who at the moment was sleeping soundly in the nursery, unaware that his father was now a part of another realm.

Without another moment's hesitation, Ildrin stumbled out of the dining hall and up the stairs to her son's room. She opened the door to see Lanna placing the child back in his cradle. "My lady," Lanna said. "Are you finished your meal already?"

"Sir Cedric is dead," Ildrin breathed, surprised at the shakiness in her voice. Lanna's lips parted in silent shock. "A messenger came from the castle. Lanna we must gather up the servants and leave this place."

"Are we in danger?" Lanna asked.

"Yes," Ildrin said, rushing toward her baby. "The battle is making its way toward the manor and we must get away immediately. Inform the others of our escape and I'll see to my child." Lanna nodded and disappeared out of the room.

Ildrin gathered the slumbering child in her arms, gazing down at his smooth face. "My dear boy," she whispered, feeling the sting of tears at her eyes. But before she could mourn her child's future any longer, there was a loud noise from downstairs. Ildrin heard raucous shouting outside, another bang from downstairs. The rebels were here, and they were attempting to break down the door.

Quickly, Ildrin wound her child in multiple layers of cloth and placed him back inside his cradle. She rushed to her own wardrobe and searched frantically for a riding cloak. Once she found the dark blue garment she swung it around her shoulders, collected her baby, and hurried downstairs.

"Lanna, Ranji, do you have the others?" Ildrin said.

"They are gathering their things, my lady," Lanna said.

"Good," Ildrin said under her breath. The souls she had to account for were already enough. She rushed toward Lanna, holding her baby to her chest. "Lanna, I want you to listen to me." The maidservant held her breath, nodding vigorously. "You and Ranji must take the others away from Castle Town. Set up camp in the Field if you must. But please promise me that you will leave this house, and Castle Town, behind you."

Lanna blinked, frozen by the immense task set before her. "What about you?"

"I have to take my son far from the reaches of this place," Ildrin said. "He is not safe here, and I cannot bring him up in the wilderness. We need to find a new home."

Lanna's eyes brimmed. "Lady Ildrin, it's a madhouse out there!" she said. "I can't let you travel alone."

"You needn't worry about me, Lanna," Ildrin said. "I will take my horse and we will flee this place. Promise me you will leave with the others!"

Lanna clamped her mouth shut for a moment, face set in an expression of frustration and terror. "I promise," she finally said. Ildrin kissed the maid's forehead and turned on her heel.

Ildrin made her way for the stables to find the horse she'd ridden to the castle hours before. Ildrin saddled and bridled the creature before a loud creaking sound came from her right. She turned swiftly, clutching her now awakened son to her torso.

"A lady!" came a hiss from above.

"And a fine one too." Many cackling men stalked into the stable, clutching swords and shields and wearing makeshift tunics of deep red. Ildrin backed away from them as another man jumped down from a hole in the stable roof, landing just behind the new mother. They snickered to themselves, planning something terrible in their small, grungy heads. Ildrin thought of the child held tightly to her breast and was filled with a new determination. Resolute on getting her son out of the town, she swiftly mounted the horse and pulled the reins taught. The horse bucked and whined, kicking its front hooves out from underneath it. The men dodged the shoed hooves, crying out in frustration. With skilled practice, Ildrin tugged on the reins and sent the steed galloping out of the stable. She had just barely made it around a bale of hay when a sharp pain erupted from her left lung, spreading through her entire torso. One of the men had launched a pointed spear in her direction, piercing through her back.

Gritting her teeth, Ildrin rode on, down the path that led east. They galloped across just in time for the baby to start letting out a fierce caterwaul of discomfort. Ildrin tried to keep her torso as still as possible, a difficult task atop a galloping horse. She barely had enough consciousness to notice the cracking thunder above her head and the spitting rain from the clouds. The drops masked the tears that fell from Ildrin's face as she looked down at her squirming, crying baby. But she gritted her teeth and rode on, all the way across Hyrule Field until night began to settle in the province.

For fear of the strange men following her, Ildrin directed her horse deep into the woods. She paid no attention to the howling wolfos in the distance, or the strange, glowing yellow lights that peered at her from the darkness between the trees. They would not harm if her if she was too quick. On and on they rode, until her horse's strength wore down as well as Ildrin's. As they slowed to a stop, the Hylian lost grip on the reins and saddle and tumbled to the ground; thankfully, she thought, she still had enough in her to protect her son from suffering any damage.

The baby lay in his bundle, crying, and now soaking wet. Ildrin lay beside him, watching his every move with a motherly intensity. "My son…"

Suddenly a gentle light consumed the darkness. Ildrin would have looked up to see its source, but her eyes would not leave the boy.

"You are Hylian, from the city."

Ildrin closed her eyes. The voice was calm and peaceful, and she feared it was a product of the delusions of the dead. She believed that no one stood before her except for the silent, hidden spirits of the trees.

"Yes," she said shakily.

"I am Maia," came the same voice, a voice Ildrin determined to be from one of the enormous trees surrounding her. "I watch over and protect the Kokiri Forest. I will not harm you."

"Please," Ildrin croaked, placing a hand over her son's wet bundle, "whoever you are. If you watch over this forest, then watch over my son, Link."

The voice made no response for several fearful moments. Ildrin felt sobs wrack her body. Her eyes fluttered as a numb darkness spread through her mind.

"Yes," Maia finally said, "I will watch over the Hero of Time reborn." Ildrin's eyes closed, and she faded into a wakeless sleep.


	2. The Birth of a King I

_28 years earlier…_

I

Ezerella Loradime stood atop the sentry tower, gazing out over the immense valley with no more excitement than a skippyjack returning to freshwater. It was just the natural way of things for a lower-class Gerudo peasant like her to take up such a dull job. She hadn't really had a say in the matter. She simply woke up one day and made her way across the extensive desert—a two-hour trip on horseback—to where the sand met the eastern mountains and assumed her position as a sentry.

The view was nice though. She stood alone at the top of a shaded tower, gazing at the barely visible yet soaring turrets of the Hylian castle. She imagined the city beneath it, Castle Town, bustling with handsome men, slender women, playful children with their toys and games of side-and-seek. There was certainly nothing wrong with her Gerudo heritage; she had a mother and sister whom she loved dearly and would not leave for the world. But her heart ached for something beyond the sentry tower, something beyond the sedentary lifestyle that was assigned to her.

She often dreamed that she would be swept away by a Hylian prince straight from the courts of the Hylian Royal Family. It was rumored that the king had had a son, and Ezerella's heart had leapt at the news. But years went by and no such handsome knight appeared in the midst of the Gerudo Desert.

The young woman had shockingly red hair with deep brown skin and amber-colored eyes—not unusual traits for the desert warrior women. Her looks were not above par, but not below it either, and she didn't have the fighting spirit of the warriors. Rumalia, the military chief, had been the one to assign her as a sentry, giving her the duties of warning anyone above her in status of intruders into the desert territory. For a young girl with a heightened imagination and a tendency toward romanticism, Ezerella found the task incredibly boring.

Although she had no idea what caused her inattentive stupor, aside from her imaginations usual wanderings, it was clear that her daydreaming caught her up in some sort of fantastical reverie just as a lone traveler made his way across Hyrule Field, a steed of deep ebony bringing him closer and closer to the mountains bordering the desert. Ezerella couldn't see his features well enough from that distance, but she did catch sight of his most striking accessory, bringing her straight out of her reverie: a white feather tucked into a band around his head, so large and wispy that Ezerella was sure it had to have belonged to one of the ancient birds given as gifts from the false goddess to her precious Hylians. A pathetic assumption, she thought, given that those particular birds had gone extinct nearly five hundred years ago.

"Aleira," Ezerella said, catching the attention of a Gerudo sentry who had just walked by on her rounds. She looked up, red hair burning orange in the glaring sunlight. "Someone rides toward the desert."

Aleira climbed the ladder that led to Ezerella's perch and peered out over the ridge. Her eyes squinted against the sun and she shielded them with a thin hand.

"I don't see anything," she said.

Ezerella looked back to the rider. "He's right there." She pointed. He was advancing swiftly, and Ezerella was certain he was headed for the sentry tower.

"There's no one there," Aleira said, turning to leave the outpost. "You should be drinking more water. The heat is getting to you."

Ezerella watched incredulously as the other sentry descended and continued her rounds. She turned to watch the rider once more, mouth slightly open as he approached. He was upon the ridge now, skillfully guiding his horse up the twisted mountain pathway toward the tower. Somewhat panicked, Ezerella climbed down the ladder and rushed along the length of the tower, pulling at another sentry's face sash.

"A rider is coming up the ridge," she said desperately. But everyone she interrupted claimed to see nothing.

Something buoyed her steps as she made her way down the immense staircase along the perimeter of the tower. She might very well have been hallucinating, but perhaps the other sentries simply weren't paying attention. This strange rider was her discovery, and she was going to be the one to stop his advance into their territory.

Finally on ground level, Ezerella rushed around the tower's base and up to the arch that identified the start of Gerudo territory. The rider was upon it now, and his horse was slowing its gait. Ezerella tied the sheer sash around her nose and mouth and picked up a pike that was resting against the wooden wall.

When the rider dismounted and walked his horse through the gateway, Ezerella got a good look at him. His handsome features suggested he was in his twenties at least, although his hair, long enough to cover one side of his face, was of a shimmering silver that flashed white in the glare of the sun. The traveler's cloak around his shoulders was a deep crimson red, covering a tunic of white and gold. His boots were made of dodongo leather, bleached a pale brown from years of exposure to sunlight. Ezerella had to steel herself. This was no time for her imagination to get the better of her.

"Hello," he said, voice deep and yet soft. He spoke the Gerudo tongue fairly well, and Ezerella narrowed her eyes skeptically. "Are you a member of the Gerudo people?"

"Our leader is very strict on visitors," she said simply. "You must follow me." She turned curtly, hoping he would follow her.

The stranger grabbed his horse's reins and coaxed it through the sand as he followed Ezerella down a side path through the sandy ridge. "What is your name?" he asked.

Everything in Ezerella's common sense told her to keep silent until they reached the inner city. But her heart seemed to stop for this mysterious man and she couldn't keep her mouth shut. "Ezerella Loradime," she answered quietly. "I am a sentry of the Gerudo."

The man nodded. "I am Link of the West," he said in response.

Although Ezerella's expression remained stoic, she smiled inwardly. The name was so common among the Hylians that it had even bled into the Gerudo; some women had named their children Linka after the legendary Hero of Time.

But that wasn't the part of his name that made her speak. "The West?" she said, tone turning inquisitive as she glanced at him over her shoulder. "What do you mean 'the West'?"

"I mean," said Link, "west of this place."

"You came from the east," Ezerella said.

"I was not born in the east," said Link. Something shimmered in his eyes, and Ezerella found herself unable to look away. She wanted to point out that there was nothing west of the desert but endless ocean, that unless he was born within the waves he couldn't possibly be from "the west." But she said nothing as they continued along the path.

"If it would take less time," Link said after a moment, "we could ride Wrana here to our destination." He patted his horse's flank with a charming tenderness.

"We will ride, but not on your horse," Ezerella said, glancing sideways at the mare's beautiful black pelt and ochre eyes. In the sunlight, the horse's irises almost glimmered a ruby red.

As if on cue, they rounded a craggy corner were a small stable shielded several horses from the sunlight. Ezerella guided a spotted gray thoroughbred into the open air and mounted with ease.

"We'll stick to the mountain path," she said as Link climbed atop his own horse. "Wrana is probably not used to travelling swiftly across sand."

While Ezerella was correct in her assumption, as Link suggested, the horse faired rather well across the path. The Gerudo found herself trying to test the Hylian—if he even was Hylian—in his equestrian abilities, having her mount gallop at full speed during difficult sections of the path. Wrana was always able to keep up, however, and the two riders made it across the desert in short time.

As they slowed, Link pulled up beside his guide. "Is that your city?" He nodded toward the immense site before them, a tall fortress constructed of adobe bricks and wooden posts. Thin red flags fluttered in the sandy wind atop every possible point. Gerudo guards and warriors brimmed the walls like Lanayru ants skittering atop an abandoned pastry.

"No," Ezerella said beneath a veiled grin. "That is Gerudo Fortress. We will go around it."

As they directed their horses around the perimeter of the fortress, a sentry watched Ezerella closely. She wondered why no one questioned her about the mysterious stranger following her, but they only seemed to notice her existence. For a fearful moment Ezerella wondered if this Link were only a figment of her imagination, and she cast an anxious glance at him. But he returned her look with a polite smile, and she felt her apprehension dissipate into the sandy breeze.

The city was not too far beyond the fortress, visible even through the billowing sands. The walls stood tall and proud, and the palace spires poked up from within. Ezerella hadn't seen other cities, not really, but she knew that even if she had, she'd still think that of the Gerudo was the most beautiful one in existence.

They walked their horses up to the main gate of the city and were stopped by a guard. When Ezerella saw that once again the visitor had gone unnoticed, she played along. She said she was returning from her shift at the sentry tower. The guard let them through.

"So it's true," Link breathed from behind her. She pulled her sash down to rest on her shoulders and grinned at him. His eyes were on the scene before them, the Gerudo bazaar. The center was buzzing with activity: women washing their clothes in the collective basins; women selling all kinds of produce and delicacies at their respective market stalls; women strolling the stone pathways wearing the most colorful garments, golden jewelry tying back their fire-colored hair. There were even a few guards patrolling the area, narrow eyes scanning for anything out of the ordinary—all of them women.

"What's true?" Ezerella said teasingly, watching as Link's eyes trailed the movement of a belly dancer's body while another woman played a pair of bongos beside her.

"The Gerudo," said Link. "You're all female."

It was the truth. Although no one could explicitly state how it had come to be, the Gerudo people were all women. Their elders and soothsayers claimed that an ancient evil cursed their race to die out gradually and miserably, providing them with one male descendent every hundred years. But as time passed the Gerudo took interracial breeding over going entirely extinct. The people of eastern Hyrule often clung to the stereotype that the Gerudo women captured their male counterparts, did their business, and then exiled the men into the hot, dry desert with no food or water for them to wander helplessly to their deaths. But the validity of these stereotypes was questionable, since not many people dared venture anywhere near the Gerudo Desert who hoped to live to tell the tale. The phenomenon remained however, and every single time a Gerudo women became pregnant from an outside lover, the child was a girl.

"Hey!" Ezerella looked up to see a guard approaching them. For the first time she saw another person's eyes land on the stranger beside her. "What's going on here?"

"A visitor from the east," Ezerella said, staring as confidently as possible at the guard.

"Did the chief approve his entry?" said the guard, eyeing Link suspiciously.

"Yes," said Ezerella. "I'm taking him to the queen."

The guard looked between them for another moment before stepping aside. But as soon as they passed the threshold into the city, Link went back to being marginally unnoticed by everyone.

"Taking me to the queen?" Link said as they guided their horses across the cobbled street toward a wide, wooden stable. "Should I feel honored?"

Ezerella let the woman in charge of the stable take her horse's reins. "All visitors—especially men—are to be taken directly to Queen Koume," she said. "You should feel honored that I'm not."

"You're not?" Link said as he led Wrana into an unoccupied stall and pulled a carrot from a saddlebag. "Why?"

"Because you're different, _Link of the West_," Ezerella said. She watched the stranger's expression turn from one of puzzlement to one of mischief.

"You could get in trouble," he said.

"I have a feeling I won't." Ezerella watched as the stable woman walked right past them, completely unaware of Link's presence.

"I chose my companion well, I see," said the Hylian, grinning down at Ezerella. She wanted to ask him what he meant, but she remained silent, smiling up at him through pale amber eyes. She finally got a good look at his and saw that they were such a dark gray they appeared black. But what stood out in the shade of the stable were his pupils. They reflected the light around them like a cat's eyes, hints of red and orange coating the metallic-looking surface. Ezerella could have sworn that they held fire within them.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I was told I needed to develop Link and Ezerella's character a bit more. Hopefully I'll achieve that in the following chapters. (:**


	3. The Birth of a King II

**A/N: Finally got the whole first part rewritten! Enjoyyy**

* * *

><p>II<p>

Saria leaned over the small blossom with an inquisitive expression, releasing a slight "hmm" as the Kokiri villagers around her practically trembled in anticipation of her diagnosis. The blossom was peeking out of a swaddle of green leaves, its tiny pink petals reaching out for the sunlight. It vaguely resembled a Deku flower, one of the cunning hiding places of Deku tribe. But it had grown—seemingly overnight—in one of the meadows of the Kokiri Forest, a mysterious maze-like ground known to the forest people as the Lost Woods.

What puzzled the Kokiri girl the most was that the Lost Woods (and most of Kokiri Forest in general) was known for its extremely curious and perplexing trait: it was timeless. Once anyone stepped foot into the underbrush of the Kokiri's domain, his body clock ceased and all of time remained trapped in a halted state. It was incredibly bewildering to even the most renowned of Hylian scholars, but nothing could be said for the forest's timeless existence. It just simply was how things were.

So here lay the question that was puzzling Saria so greatly: what was this blossom doing here? She had only ever seen blossoms in books and had learned through her "years" of being Kokiri soothsayer that the Father Tree once bore beautiful blossoms during the spring. But once the seasons stopped and time seemed to slow down, blossoms never occurred anymore since the flowers never died.

"It appears to be a young flower," Saria said, placing her hands on her hips.

A wave of anxious whispers flowed through the crowd surrounding her. They didn't know the things Saria knew, however. For starters, many of the Kokiri had no idea their existence was "timeless;" it was a burden for the village leader and soothsayer to carry this knowledge. Most of the villagers lived in blissful ignorance of their situation. They didn't know the deeper truth behind Saria's concern.

"Now I don't want anyone to panic," Saria said, turning to face the crowd of disconcerted people. Her short bob of green hair glinted in the dappled sunlight, the teal headband of a soothsayer marking her role of wisdom. "Listen to me. This blossom means nothing. I'd like you all to return to your daily business and to not worry." She finished her speech with a warm smile, clasping her hands together. The Kokiri muttered their satisfied acceptance and dispersed, returning to the village center.

From the disappearing crowd, the Kokiri leader, Mido, stepped forward and approached Saria with a solemn expression on his face. "Walk with me?" he asked quietly.

Saria looked up at him gravely as they turned from the blossom toward the wall of trees that surrounded the village. They stepped through the underbrush, arms linked together. "We mustn't look into it," said the girl distractedly.

"Does it have anything to do with your visions?" said Mido. He was of course referring to the restless nights Saria spent dreaming about the Father Tree, the eternal, spiritual being that fathered and protected the Kokiri, cracking and withering into dust and ash beneath a wall of fire.

"Nothing is dying here," Saria said, looking ahead as they walked, "merely growing."

"But growth is accompanied by death," Mido said, jaw set.

"A blossom in the woods has nothing to do with fire," said Saria. "Perhaps we should be looking at it as a good omen against death."

Mido did not seem convinced. He used his free hand to adjust the green cap atop his yellow-haired head. Suddenly he said, "Do you think any of them know?"

Saria didn't need clarification. The day she became soothsayer she'd been betrothed to the village leader. She hadn't realized at the time that their shared burden of knowledge would be what brought them so close together.

"I don't think so," she said. "It's not their duty to know." She looked at her husband, green eyes wrought with worry. "We can't tell them, Mido."

"I know," he said. "But if the forest does start dying…" He took a deep breath upon saying those words. "They'll be so…lost."

Saria gazed at the trees that towered above them. They weren't particularly tall trees; the Kokiri had the strange trait of being about a child's height to an average person. Not only that, but they even looked like children, with soft round features and large eyes. Most of them acted like children too, Saria thought. They didn't have any reference though, so the Kokiri villagers had no idea they looked like children. Saria and Mido knew.

"We should wait," said Saria, words partitioned carefully, "for the Forest Father to send a sign. When it is time for the Kokiri to leave, we will know."

Mido wasn't satisfied, but he stopped walking and turned to Saria with a calm expression. "I'll trust you," he said. "But we need to be hyperaware of every miniscule change in the forest. Take note of everything."

Saria nodded. She looked up to see the large, overgrown building they'd stopped in front of, a temple that used to serve as a holy place for their ancestors. Saria had read once that the people beyond the forest held the Kokiri ancestors in very high regard. All she knew about them was that they were gone, and this temple was their monument to the Kokiri.

"Have you ever been inside?" she asked suddenly.

Mido looked up to follow her gaze. The entrance was high above the ground and virtually unreachable; it looked as if there used to be stairs leading up to it, but they'd been destroyed by some unknown force long ago.

"No," he said. "Have you?"

Saria shook her head. "I don't think anyone's been inside for ages."

Mido laughed. "That means nothing within the forest's boundaries."

"I know," she said, still looking at the temple entrance. It looked like a gaping mouth, with nothing but darkness within. "But maybe if we knew, we'd have more answers."

"Maybe." Mido turned to head back to the village. "They'll be wondering where we are."

Saria took another moment to watch the temple, almost certain something was watching her back. She finally turned to follow him back through the trees.

Time passed outside the forest, and the flower didn't seem to grow. Nothing else grew, and nothing else died. Saria continued to keep her terrifying dream from the rest of the Kokiri, and Mido continued to respect her judgment. General ease flowed over the childlike people, and Saria thought that maybe just once her vision wouldn't come true.

She was sitting at the base of a tree, sketching the strange blossom in a tiny makeshift notebook, when she saw the woodland fairy fluttering toward her like a dandelion wisp of light. It emitted such an intense light from a shining necklace that only its wings were visible outside the sphere of bluish-white. Saria knew the woodland fairy well; Tera. She had been her messenger to the Father Tree since she could remember. But she usually only came to Saria at the Kokiri's request. Eventually the ball of light stopped moving, bobbing up and down in the air right in front of Saria.

"Saria," the fairy said with a small voice that echoed like little chimes. "Father Tree has a message."

Saria stared long at the ball of light in front of her, green eyebrows furrowed slightly. Never before had the Forest Father come to her with a message. Their exchanges were usually quite one-sided, with Tera acting as a representative. And even then it was loose guidance based on what the woodland fairy believed the Father Tree would say. The Kokiri had just been starting to wonder if the Tree were even a sentient being, as she'd been led to believe.

"What is it?" Saria said.

"There are some things you need to know." The fairy's little wings beat the air idly. "You should come with me."

"Where?" Saria said, closing her notebook in her lap. "Father Tree?"

"Yes," Tera said.

Saria stood, green eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

"Things will become clearer once we make it to the Sacred Grove," Tera said. "I'd love to tell you things are okay, but I'm not so sure myself."

Saria didn't like this. She followed the fairy quietly, eyes on the little bobbing sphere the whole distance. It wasn't too far to the Sacred Grove, a small meadow where the Forest Father sat upon his ancient roots. Saria had been there many times as the Kokiri soothsayer, but few were ever allowed to enter. Tera was the only woodland fairy she'd ever seen, but she often heard the whispers and giggles of others within the Forest Father's numerous branches. Now, she feared what she might find in the Grove.

Past the dense underbrush of the thickly wooded forest, they came across the entrance to the Sacred Grove. It almost appeared unnatural, with thin tree branches arching over the opening, lichen draping from their gnarled twigs. Tera slipped silently between strands, leaving a trail of blue dust behind. Saria brushed them aside lightly to see the Father Tree standing tall before her. Its thick, twisting branches reached out over the entirety of the grove, connecting almost seamlessly with the trees surrounding it. With the Kokiri's small height, the immense tree looked like some kind of mountainous god, and even with the many times she'd witnessed its magnificence behind her, she still felt the inexorable need to fall to her knees, hands pressed against the damp soil. She bowed her head respectfully, closing her eyes.

Saria opened them again when she felt Tera's blue light shining above her head. She looked up at the fairy, who was bobbing lightly in her direction. Eventually the fairy turned, facing the Forest Father. After a long moment, she spoke.

"It is time for the fairies of the wood to aid the Kokiri," she said.

"What do you mean?" Saria said, still not standing.

"Something's happening, Saria," said Tera, turning to face her Kokiri companion. Saria could have sworn she heard uncertainty, maybe fear, in the soft, tinkling voice. "You feel it too, because you're the Kokiri soothsayer. The Forest Father wants to help you."

Saria looked at the giant tree in the middle of the grove. The light around seemed warm and yellow, but she felt a chill from the cool earth against her palms. "How?" she said.

"There are more fairies like me," Tera said. "And Father Tree wants us to join with the Kokiri. Become partners, so that the Forest Children have constant guidance."

Constant guidance. Saria grit her teeth as she watched the woodland fairy. "Okay," she said. "Then send them."

Tera seemed to jump in the air as she turned to face the Forest Father once again. After another moment, she turned back. "There is still much you don't know," she said, not unkindly. "It could unearth doubts you've not yet voiced."

Saria glanced up at the Tree. She felt like it was watching her somehow. If this was a test of faith, then so be it.

"Send them," she said resolutely.

The light that seemed to envelope the small Kokiri forced her to shield her eyes, shutting them tightly against the glare. She felt no warmth, but was terrified for a brief moment that her eyelids would burn away, forcing her to look upon the light. It was as if every leaf from the colossal tree had glowed white, turning into purity itself.

That was the thought in Saria's head as she fluttered her eyes open, finding herself on her back in her house. She sat up in the wooden pod that served as a bed, looking around curiously. Had it all been a dream?

But as Saria swung her legs over the bed, rubbing her face in weariness, she heard a soft jingling coming from outside. Looking up, she saw a soft light filtering in through the window, until Tera gently floated inside. Saria was not accustomed to seeing the woodland fairy so much in any context other than the Sacred Grove.

"You're awake," Tera said.

Saria glanced out the window, where the light was still painting the forested village in green, blue, and yellow, but most of all white.

"The fairies are here," she said quietly.

"You should come meet them," Tera chimed. She bubbled up and down excitedly as Saria stood up and stepped silently over to the window. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but when they did, what she saw widened them.

All around the village, Kokiri were chattering and laughing happily, each paired with a tiny woodland fairy. They all shined differently, Saria noted, some with pink hues, some gold. But all of them had a white core and a fluttering pair of dragonfly wings keeping them aloft.

It was beautiful, Saria thought.

"Saria!" She looked down to see Mido standing at the base of the ladder leading up to their house. His blond hair shimmered under the light of a fairy floating above his head. "Come down!"

Saria smiled. For the first time in a while her heart felt light. She climbed down the ladder and rather abruptly pulled Mido into an embrace. They both laughed when they pulled away, smiling at each other.

"Did you know about this?" Mido said.

"Yes… how did I get back to my bed?" Saria laughed.

"Must have been a dream," said Mido. He glanced up at the fairy above his head. "This is Sion." The fairy chimed a greeting. Its glow was green.

Saria nodded at the fairy that followed her down the ladder. "This is Tera."

Mido smiled. Saria had told him plenty of her Father Tree messenger. "What is the purpose of this?" he said.

Saria's smile wavered. She looked away from him. "The Forest Father sent them as personal guides. For… troubles to come."

Mido watched her as his smile faded. After a moment he cleared his throat. "Well for the time being it is a joyous event," he said. "There's no need to worry our people."

Saria nodded, smile returning. She watched Mido dash into the center of the small village, holding his hands above his head. The Kokiri quieted, directing their new companions' attentions toward the leader.

"My good people," Mido said, voice raised as he spoke, "the Forest Father has sent us another gift!"

The people around him cheered in delight. Saria smiled at Tera.

"Let us honor the Great Tree's generosity with a feast!" More cheers. The whole town seemed to get into a routine mode of preparation, scurrying from their places to perform their previously-determined duties for the feast.

As Saria watched, she felt the lightness inside her deflate. She didn't feel right, hiding so much from the people that trusted her, but she knew it was for the best. Their ignorance was, after all, the reason for their cheerful chattering.

Mido walked up to her, slightly out of breath from the excitement, a grin still plastered on his childlike face. He curled his arms around Saria's waist.

"It will be all right, Saria," he said and kissed her forehead. "You mustn't worry."

Saria closed her eyes, letting Mido's arms embrace her. "I hope you're right, my love," she said, then looked up to kiss him softly.


	4. The Birth of a King III

III

Ezerella watched her sister Pivona laugh at her from across the dining circle.

"A man? From the _west_?" she said, holding a delicate hand up to her mouth to stop food from falling out. "Blessed Tama, you really are bored up there, aren't you?"

Ezerella looked down at the communal bowl in the circle's center, filled with spiced meats and flat bread slices. The cushions around it were of some luxurious fabric she couldn't determine, probably satin, and were trimmed with gold lace. The small circle was enveloped by sheer fabric as well, painting the whole "room" in red and purple. It was the kind of dining circle meant for higher class Gerudo, which Pivona was not. But it was no secret that she was sleeping with one of Ralzana Koume's council members, who had her own quarters within the palace itself. It earned Pivona quite a good bit of luxury.

"That's beside the point," Ezerella said, taking a sip of wine from an ornate goblet on the ground beside her. She rarely got to taste wine.

"It is not beside the point," said Pivona. Her curls were a deep crimson that seemed to shin a little brighter than her sister's. "If what you say is true, I'm guessing you did not bring him to the ralzana. Where are you hiding him anyway?"

Ezerella paused, amber eyes meeting her sister's. "My house."

Pivona's eyebrows shot up. "Keen to keep him to yourself, then?"

"That's not it," Ezerella said. "There's something…different about him."

"Oh, you're in love, how adorable," Pivona said, voice lilting. She reached into the bowl, curling her fingers around the delicacy and bringing it to her lips.

"Will you listen to me?" Ezerella said with a laugh, slapping her sister's arm.

"You will get in trouble, you know," said Pivona. "If you keep him a secret, if he's even _real_, he can't stay hidden forever. Ralzana Koume will discover him. And I can't pull enough strings to get you off that kind of hook. Especially not now."

Ezerella sighed. The rules were so strict concerning men entering the city, and she knew what Pivona was hinting at. It wasn't spoken of ever amongst people of sociable status, but the gossip flew like a sandstorm among the public wash houses Ezerella went to every week. So many had begun to write it off as myth, something that couldn't possibly be true given their circumstances, but there were others who clung to the hope. Maybe it was more than myth—maybe it was true.

"Do you believe it?" Ezerella said suddenly.

Pivona stopped mid-sip and regarded her sister carefully. She put the goblet down. "I figured my last statement would give you that answer."

"You really think it could happen? A ralzan?"

"Not just a ralzan, Ezzy," said Pivona, leaning forward across the circle. "A ralzan to bring ultimate prosperity to our people. To change the bleak situation with the Hylians that have declared ownership over Hyrule."

Ezerella glanced out the parting between the drapes that shielded them from the hot sun. They were on a balcony looking out over a wonderful oasis, walled conveniently inside the upper class district of the city. Not many people were bathing, with the sun beating down on the desert, relentlessly.

"His name is Link," she said, a smiling alighting on her lips.

Pivona laughed beside her, making her look up again. "Just be careful, little sister," she said. "Step lightly through this one."

The next day Link convinced Ezerella to allow him outside her isolated room—told her that he felt a little like a pet guay in a cage. Ezerella made him promise to stay "invisible" to everyone, at least for a little while. He agreed, and she brought him through the bazaar when her shift was over. Eventually, as the visitor grew accustomed to Gerudo traditions, he gradually revealed his presence to the citizens. Ezerella began to grow nervous, given the attention he was receiving. But he assured her he would not let things out of his control.

One day Ezerella did not even have to return to her house to retrieve Link; he had already made his way to the bazaar. Ezerella found herself running down the stairs and across the irrigation canal bridge that separated the districts, every worst possible scenario running through her mind. The ralzana had found out about him and taken him as a prisoner. He had gotten lost somewhere and killed by a warrior. But when she arrived at the bazaar, she saw Link beneath a tented kiosk, sitting on a rolled-out carpet. Displayed in front of him was an incredible array of masks and weapons, all seemingly handcrafted. Ezerella walked up to him, smiling in bemusement.

"What is this?" she said, unable to hide her anxiousness about his nonchalance.

"I'm a traveler," Link said, looking up at her from beneath the awning. His silvery white hair looked metallic even in the shade. "This is my livelihood."

"You made these?" Ezerella knelt down in front of the arrangement and picked up a mask. It was wooden, painted gold, and finished with a smoothing lacquer. It was beautiful.

"Yes," Link said. He smiled.

Ezerella put the mask back down. "Link, you have to be careful," she said. "If anyone finds out you made it into the city without seeing Ralzana Koume…"

"It will be fine," Link said with a laugh, putting a hand over hers.

Ezerella looked at their hands, one pale over the other deep brown. Everything about him contrasted her—his skin, his hair, his eyes, even his personality. But that only increased the feeling of lightness that accompanied his touch.

Link removed his hand with a timid smile. "You don't need to worry about me."

But she did. In the days, weeks that followed, Link's presence became undeniable. Being one of the only men in the whole city, many of them flocked to his tent merely to pass yearning glances and comment on his interesting clothes. Although he was quite the reserved gentleman, Ezerella once caught him fastening a mask to a woman's face while standing behind her, and very close behind her indeed.

But Ezerella's fear was only heightened when a whole troop of guards marched through the bazaar's cobbled streets. They looked identical in their leather uniforms, red hair tied up and out of their faces concealed by sashes. In the middle, dressed in the finest satin Ezerella had ever seen, was Ralzana Koume herself. As she neared them, the surrounding people began bowing their heads respectfully, causing Ezerella to duck her head as well.

"Stand," she whispered. Link did so and bowed deeply at the waist, black eyes resting on Koume.

The Gerudo leader was undoubtedly beautiful. Her burgundy, wavy hair stopped at her waist, held back by a red headband that dangled jewels in front of her golden eyes. Her tan-skinned face was partially concealed by a sheened veil of gold that connected to the headband above her slightly pointed ears. Robes of red and yellow blanketed her shoulders, protecting her skin from the harsh rays of the sun.

"Link of the West, I am to believe?" she said with a slightly lifted chin, eyes scrutinizing her guest.

Link straightened and nodded. "Ralzana," he said. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

Koume's gold eyes flashed with amusement. "I am at quite a loss," she said, voice like velvet. "Usually visitors come to me before setting up shop and starting a life amongst my people." Her eyes flitted toward Ezerella for the briefest of moments.

"It is my fault, Ralzana," Link said. "I should have come to you sooner."

Koume tilted her head to the side slightly, eyeing Link carefully. "I must say, normally my patience would be quite tested and I would dispose of you immediately." She smirked. "But your presence seems to delight my people." The women around them giggled girlishly and Ezerella felt her jaw set against the tension. "I do have my eye on you, however."

"Understandable," Link said, nodding again. "Once again, my apologies."

Koume's smile widened, but the scrutiny did not leave her gold eyes. "Welcome to the Desert, Link of the West." And with that she turned and the horde of Gerudo continued their march through the bazaar.

Link sat back down on the roll beneath the awning as the minor crowd dispersed. "See?" he said. "Nothing to worry about."

"I should get to the watchtower," said Ezerella as she fastened her sash across her nose and mouth.

"Why, exactly, are you so worried?" Link said, looking up at her.

Ezerella's brow twitched slightly. She wasn't sure what to even tell him, what the concrete reason was for her anxiety.

"I'm not very significant in the eyes of royalty."

"You are significant in the eyes of me," Link said softly, looking up at her with smiling eyes.

Ezerella looked down at him, heart fluttering inside her chest. But as light as it made her feel, a frown covered her face. Now that even the ralzana recognized his presence, she couldn't afford to let herself feel this way. Still, Link's smooth pale features and knowing smile… Ezerella suddenly felt the irresistible magnetism of his gaze and her frown was replaced by a gradual smile.

"Come with me," she said.

Link's lips twitched and Ezerella saw his black eyes flash in the light. After a moment Link stood and rested a sheer blanket over his wares. Normally Ezerella would have advised him to pack his things away and safe from thieves, but she was in the midst of doing something she shouldn't, so she only grabbed Link's hand and pulled him through a narrow alley.

As they navigated through the dusty streets of the quieter parts of town, Ezerella wondered if Link would ask where they were going. Whenever she cast an excited smile at him, he always seemed to have an expression of calm acceptance on his face. She shook her head slightly when she found that the expression made her somewhat frightened; she knew Link wouldn't hurt her. …would he?

The thought did not spend much time in her mind as they neared a wall—incredibly tall and made out of solid slabs of adobe clay. Along the wall about thirty feet up were square holes, made as miniature lookout points for the sentries that patrolled the inner wall. Constant surveillance, Ezerella thought, even on the citizens within. She felt along the wall's surface cautiously, letting go of Link's hand.

"There's a passage here somewhere," she said, although she didn't think Link needed any explanation. He had walked up with her and was feeling along the edges.

"Here," he said after a moment, and nudged a loose brick at the base of the wall with his foot. The dirt ground gave way to a dark, dry passage that led deep underground.

Ezerella smiled. She and Link scurried inside before any of the wall sentries could spot them. She pulled a lever on the side of the passage wall and the path shut behind them.

For a moment they were in total darkness. Ezerella cursed herself for not bringing a torch, right before the sound of a match lighting filled the quiet. Link's face, pale and mysterious, was lit up from the fire burning at the end of the match, and he smiled.

"Shall we?" he said.

Ezerella turned and moved down the tunnel. It was as dry as the surface, and she had to cover her face with her sash so not as to breathe in any sand. The two of them had to duck their heads slightly—the passageway was a lot smaller than she'd remembered. They moved onward in silence, for many minutes. The tunnel was the quickest way to their destination, and probably the safest if you include harsh Gerudo guards as threats. But the trek in the darkness lasted about an hour before they Link ran out of matches. It wasn't too unfortunate however, since Ezerella spotted a burning torch not too far off along the path.

Once they made it to the end, Ezerella pulled another level on the right wall of the tunnel, made visible by the torchlight. She knew there must have been a spell on the fire to keep it burning, since the lever and torch stand were covered in layers of dust as if they hadn't been touched in years. Once the lever had been pulled, a row of stone steps appeared from above and she could see a wooden trapdoor at their peak. They climbed the steps and pushed open the door, only to reveal more darkness.

"Come on," Ezerella said. She grabbed one of the torches from inside the tunnel and closed the wooden door behind them. Around them were stacks and stacks of crates and ceramic pots, as if they'd exited in a storage room. They made their way to a door on the far wall and Ezerella opened it slowly.

The light was blinding and the Gerudo had to step back inside the dark room to adjust. But Link stepped out with his dark eyes wide open as he gazed at what stood to their right: a giant curved wall with large arches built into its surface. Ezerella grinned as well when her eyes finally allowed sight in the brightness.

She grabbed Link's wrist again and pulled him around the edge of the curved wall. She knew there would be no guards on duty—this place was barely accessible as it stood in the middle of a mountainous valley not far from Snowpeak. But the place was so eerily quiet that she felt a need to be silent.

Eventually they rounded the corner and stepped out toward the front of the massive structure. Stone pillars stood towering over them on either side of the building's entrance, which was a massive rectangular opening in the middle of the stone wall. Above it rested the symbol of the Gerudo, resembling a desert beetle, and many ancient Gerudo hieroglyphs. Behind the entrance they could see the circular, open dome of arches, five stories high, the towering coliseum of the Gerudo ancestors.

The Arbiter's Grounds. It was known to be a prison of the damned where chained captives were dragged directly to the underworld via a mirror. It was just as, maybe more ornate than Gerudo Palace. It seemed to exist in a realm of the in-between, only accessible during the transitional hours of the day. The spirits of those once chained within its walls lingered in the air. Ezerella had been here a time or two in her childhood, when she and her sister would sneak through the tunnel that led here. Their mother caught them returning once and scolded them so heavily that they never even spoke of their secret, forbidden adventures. Ezerella was never frightened of the cautionary tales anyway. It was only a children's tale to get them to stay within the law. The Arbiter was a terrifying spirit from the realm of evil itself, and you would be at his mercy if you did not make your bed every morning. But how could he have been real, Ezerella always wondered, if he was a man?

Link was standing at the top of the steps that led toward the structure's entrance, gazing up at the coliseum walls. His eyes were darker than Ezerella had ever seen them, and her eyebrows twitched apprehensively. Not once had Link wondered where they were going. And even now, as they stood on the heightened stone platform, he seemed to know exactly where he was. Ezerella began panicking—she brought a complete stranger, and outsider to the most sacred of Gerudo grounds, one she wasn't even allowed to visit. The ralzana rarely ventured out here, let alone lowly peasants. Her heart began to pound as she watched Link survey the Grounds.

"What are you?" she said suddenly.

Link's expression seemed to relax as he turned his dark gaze on her. He smirked. "I am Hylian." Ezerella could tell he was repeating this phrase as a form of test, to see if she still believed it.

"You're a Hylian from the West," Ezerella said, stepping toward him. "Yet you are able to disappear from anyone's sight at will. Either you are an incredibly talented sorcerer, or you are not Hylian."

Link laughed lightly, closing the space between them with a few swift strides. He suddenly grabbed her wrist tightly, holding it just above her head. She felt fear and panic flash through her as she gazed into his shadowy eyes, now alight with the red fire of the sun. She thought once again that his pupils were diamond-shaped.

"You want to know what I am?" Link said, voice low and rough as his eyes raked over her body. "_That_ is what I am."

Ezerella wanted to run. She wanted to go back to before she let this stranger into the desert. She prayed to Tama, the sacred Goddess of Sand, to reverse time, to undo all of this. She never felt more afraid in her life.

And then Link's lips were on hers. Ezerella didn't think she could push him away if that was what she really wanted. But she found herself leaning into him heavily, moving her lips against his with an intensity she'd never felt before. She needed to be closer to him, to be part of him. The two of them collapsed on the stone before the entrance to the Grounds, pressing into each other as the red sun sunk below the horizon.


	5. The Birth of a King IV

IV

Time was altering Saria's perception in a way it hadn't before. Usually, as the Kokiri soothsayer, she experienced a real flow of time unknown to the rest of her people. But the more she saw of the tiny bright woodland fairies bouncing above the heads of her fellow Kokiri, signifying their presence from afar, the more it felt to her like they'd been a part of their world forever. Even Tera seemed to feel as if the fairies completed each Kokiri villager, like they'd never been apart in spirit. It felt right to Saria, but she was still afraid that this was only a secondhand effect caused by the Forest Father's gift, one that meant everything would be changing soon.

One hazy evening, or what the Kokiri referred to as evening since the day's light never changed within the forest, Saria's dreams took her to the Sacred Grove. Father Tree loomed before her, his gnarled branches seemingly enveloping her in a solid embrace. She could almost see a face carved from the wood of his trunk, something she'd never seen before. As she watched, the face's mouth gradually opened and the Forest Father let out a cracking groan. From the mouth emerged wisps of darkness that smelled of rotting leaves and turned the air around Saria black. Skulltulas of varying sizes creeped from within, followed shortly after by what appeared to be a woman. Her pale naked body was wrapped tightly in the wisps of darkness and she seemed to be running from something within. Her yellow hair was gradually turning black as the wisps clawed at her face. Eventually she shouted, voice layered with multiple tones, crying out for help.

Saria awoke with a start to see her little fairy bobbing above her head. She was jingling in what Saria could only assume was anxiousness.

"Saria!" Tera chimed. "Saria, wake up!"

Saria sat up slowly, holding a hand to her forehead. It was sleek with cold sweat. "I'm okay."

Tera's jingling calmed. "You were having a nightmare, weren't you?"

"I think I need to see the Forest Father," Saria said through deep breaths. She tucked her green hair behind her lightly pointed ears.

Mido stirred beside her. She looked down to see him clutch the coarse blankets to his chest in an effort to remain asleep. Saria got out of bed and threw on a green dress and brown slippers before heading out of the little hut. She climbed down the ladder and saw a few fairies bouncing along the distance, revealing the presence of a few Kokiri who didn't feel as if it were evening yet. It made unnoticed escape quite difficult, since there was no determined sleep schedule within the forest. Only Saria and Mido seemed to sleep around the same time.

Still, it was simple enough weaving her way through the village and toward the Sacred Grove. The others most likely assumed she was heading off to pray to the forest guardians. Once she and Tera made it to the Grove, she found herself rushing inside nervously. She needed to make sure nothing horrible had happened to the Father Tree concerning these ominous wisps of darkness. Sure enough, as soon as she saw the enormous tree safe and sound, she let out a breath of relief.

"Your nightmare must have been terrible," Tera said beside her.

Saria didn't say anything. She only took slow steps toward the tree, feeling somewhat calmed by the serene presence it had. But something was tugging at her, and she tried to make sense of it.

"Darkness is coming to Hyrule," came a gentle yet authoritative voice, that of a much older female. As if on cue, a beautiful woman seemed to emerge from the intertwined branches of the tree. She was three times the size of Saria, and had a misty haze about her that made the Kokiri question whether or not she was a physical being. She had long green hair that seemed to turn into the tree's vines as it fell down her back, matching with the foliage that covered her body. Unlike the fairies that now swarmed Kokiri Village, this beautiful woman had no wings, nor shining necklace of light.

Saria wasn't entirely sure what she was seeing. "You're the spirit of the Forest Father?" she said.

The woman let out a laugh that sounded like the chatter of fairies, only much more graceful and distant, as if a giant bell had chimed in a faraway land.

"The Great Deku Tree merely accepted and welcomed me into his sanctuary," the Fairy answered. "I am Maia, the Great Fairy of Courage, and I watch over your forest."

"How do I stop the forest from dying?" Saria asked hurriedly.

Another laugh from the Great Fairy sounded through the glade. "The forest is cursed, little one. Timelessness is not something to treasure. With death comes growth, and the birth of new things."

"But this means the Forest Father and the Kokiri will die," Saria said, tone panicked.

"The Kokiri are safe in the arms of the fairies and the Great Tree," Maia said. "But you must know of the dangers that come with change." The Great Fairy descended from the tree, hovering in the air until she was just above Saria's head. "A new age is dawning on all of Hyrule. This is why it is necessary for the forest to die, and for new things to grow in its place. However the time is encroaching much too quickly. The forest must live on or else it will become corrupted, and nothing new will come of it."

Saria felt like her mind were racing out of control. A new age? What did that even mean? She wasn't even sure if she could trust this Maia. But for the time being, it was all she had.

"What do I do?" she said.

Maia seemed to float nonchalantly in the air. "Music has always pleased the gods," she said with an air of supposition. "And in the new age that is dawning, it will rule the skies. The birth of the new princess will grant the people of Hyrule the music of the goddesses, which when played by the chosen hero can be used for the good of the land and the people." The Great Fairy waved a hand through the air, conjuring up a small wooden item. "Fashioned from the bark of the Great Tree, I grant you this ocarina, Saria of the Kokiri."

Saria took the ocarina from the ethereal being's hands, eyeing it closely. It was smooth and oblong in shape, with several holes etched into the round surface. "How is this supposed to help the forest?"

"There is a song you must play," said Maia, returning to her perch in the branches of the Forest Father. "It was stored away within your heart from the moment you set foot on the ground, and can ebb the death of the forest. But know that when it is time for you to pass on your ocarina, it is time for the forest to die."

Saria gazed up at the fading entity of the Great Fairy. "How will I know? Great Fairy, please, how will I know when to pass on the ocarina, and how will I learn the song?"

Maia paused, turning to flash a smile at the Kokiri. "The forest will guide you, little one, as you harbor a wise spirit." And with that, the Great Fairy let out a peeling laugh and vanished within the Forest Father.

Saria gazed down at the wooden ocarina in her small hands. She had no idea how to play, but she knew that in order to save the forest she would at least have to try. Each and every word Maia had said clung to her skin like tree sap. A new princess? What did that have to do with anything? Saria had read before about the legends outside the forest, of the goddess Hylia reincarnating whenever trouble would fall upon the land. It always made her wonder how the Hylians could revere such a reincarnation, if it meant bad things were coming.

"The Great Fairy is right," Tera said quietly, fluttering by Saria's ear. "The death of the forest may be frightening, but it is inevitable."

"Who is this Great Fairy?" Saria asked suddenly, turning on her companion with a frightened gaze. "Why does she live inside the Father Tree?"

"I told you that the coming of the woodland fairies would unearth many truths that were long forgotten," Tera said. "The Great Fairy of Courage has been watching over and protecting the forest for ages."

"But why now?" Saria said. "Why make herself known now? If she can protect the forest, why is she allowing it to die?"

"Saria, you must accept the forest's death if you are to save the Kokiri," Tera said. "The Great Fairy will grant you the courage you need to see this through."

Saria looked down at the ocarina again. After a moment she clutched it to her chest and closed her eyes. "All right," she said. "For the good of Hyrule."

Before Saria returned to the village, she tucked the ocarina away inside her small satchel. Something about the nature of her visit with the Great Fairy made her feel as if her new task must be kept secret, even from Mido, and she had to cut through Kokiri Village in order to get to the ancient temple in the Lost Woods. She wasn't sure why, but she imagined the magic there would be helpful in her learning the song of the forest.

Sure enough, Mido was waiting just inside the village for Saria. "Saria," he said, rushing up to her. "What happened? Did the Father Tree speak to you again?"

"There is still hope," Saria said simply, with a smile. "The Father Tree predicts a prosperous time for the forest."

A few surrounding Kokiri grinned happily, but Mido regarded Saria skeptically. "Saria," he said below his breath, "what are you not telling me?"

Saria felt pained by the look of concern in Mido's eyes. She knew that keeping such a big secret from the Kokiri leader would only create distance between them, but she felt it was necessary. She merely smiled at him and turned toward the entrance to the Lost Woods. She felt Mido's eyes on her back as she walked briskly.

If the forest's timelessness was a curiosity to outsiders, the Lost Woods were an enigma beyond explanation. Anyone unfamiliar with their layout, as the name suggested, would be lost within seconds, finding themselves exactly where they started without turning in any direction. Even many of the Kokiri could not navigate its territory without losing their sense of direction. Saria, in her soothsayer wisdom, was not afraid and knew that the woods only wanted to be left alone. Curiously, they always seemed to allow her unhindered passage.

Once she found the ancient temple, she felt within her the pain of the dying foliage, the leaking energy from the overgrown building. She watched Tera flutter around the entrance to the overgrown building, which towered above them.

"Something is awakening the power from this place," the fairy said delicately. "It must be the new age that the Great Fairy mentioned."

"It once held the power of a gate that let one transcend time itself," Saria said, although she knew the fairy must already know the temple's history. "It has been empty for centuries."

"But it is being rebuilt," Tera said suddenly, fluttering down to Saria. "The gods are filling it with renewed energy. It must be why the forest around it is dying; the new surge of energy is too much for such a static place." She paused, wings flitting rapidly. "Do you feel the song of the forest?"

Saria closed her eyes, feeling the pulse of the temple's new energy. The melody whistled through her like a cool breeze, lifting her spirits. She reached into her satchel and pulled out the ocarina, feeling the energy flow through it. Pressing the mouthpiece to her lips, she began to play. The speed of her fingers startled her, as well as the immense power she felt at the melody's sound. She played through a whole song, and then repeated. She kept on repeating, feeling buoyed by its lightness and empowered by its abilities. She could vaguely make out Tera's whistling voice, crying out, "It's working! Saria, it's working! The grove… it's regenerating!"

But in her mind, a whole orchestra of forest instruments had joined in. She danced in place, overjoyed by the tune and the energy.

In the midst of her dancing, she spun around and briefly opened her eyes, and suddenly the music stopped. Her fingers froze above the keys, and the symphony of instruments in her head ceased. There, standing at the entrance of the Lost Woods, was a Skull Kid.

What could have been years and years ago, on Saria's first day, Mido told her the tall tale of the Children of the Forest. The warning goes that if a Kokiri finds himself so lost within the woods that he cannot find his way back, the forest will eat him up and turn him into a Skull Kid, a scarecrow-like bandit that is always and forever alone. Saria read that Hyrule theorists called them Children of the Forest, for the cautionary tale was not necessarily true. One theory suggested that a Kokiri once mated with a Deku scrub, producing a mutated half-breed that has become a somewhat rare occurrence in the woods. Another theory, the one that gave these creatures the name Children of the Forest, suggests that they are truly children of trees, grown from Deku seeds that have been graced with a Great Fairy's tears, or the light from a woodland fairy. All scholars, however, agreed that the creatures did not exist. So when Saria saw the Skull Kid standing silently at the woods' entrance, her heart nearly stopped.

The Skull Kid had eerily gray skin, thin stick-like limbs, and two beady, orange eyes with no whites hiding deep in what must have been its face. It wore dirty rags that resembled deteriorated Kokiri clothing, including the straw hat of a Kokiri worker. The brim of the hat shadowed its face, but Saria had an upsetting hunch that no matter what angle she tried to look through, she wouldn't see a face at all.

"Play it again," the Skull Kid said, voice like crunching leaves.

Saria was breathing heavily, from a combination of exhaustion and fright. The creature before her looked like a demon the forest had spit out, simply because it had been too hard to swallow. It was sagging and empty, and certainly seemed alone.

"Did you hear me? Play it again."

Saria swallowed the lump in her throat and pressed the ocarina to her lips once more. She searched for the melody inside her heart, but it didn't come to her. Her fingers were trembling, and she knew that without the spirit of the forest within her once more, she could never move them according to the song's swift melody.

"Play it again. Play it again, play it again."

It was acting like a little kid, like a whining child that wanted its way. And Saria had no idea what would happen if it didn't get its way.

"I can't…" she breathed, looking down at the ocarina.

"You were just playing it," the Skull Kid said, eyes boring holes into Saria's. "What do you mean you can't?"

"I don't know how… I was just…" Saria felt her heart pounding in fear. "Please don't hurt me."

The Skull Kid lifted its head slightly so that the hat could no longer possibly shadow its face. But where a face would be only darkness resided, with a large grin revealing two rows of rigidly sharp teeth. "Hurt you?" it echoed, sounding confused. "I just want you to play that song again. Play it again."

The Skull Kid took a step forward, and Saria shut her eyes, hoping it was somehow an apparition. But she heard Tera's tingling voice beside her whisper, "Ignore it. Let the voice of the forest flow through you again. You can do it, Saria."

Saria did just that, and was once more playing the joyful melody of the forest. She opened her eyes this time, watching the Skull Kid carefully, and to her surprise it began to dance. It hopped from foot to foot, eyes closed in joy. Then, to add to Saria's surprise, it whipped out a thin, wooden flute and pressed it to its lipless mouth. "Teach me," it exclaimed, interrupting the musical session.

Saria paused. "If I were to be honest," she said, choosing her words carefully, "I don't necessarily know how to play it. It's the ocarina."

The Skull Kid's glowing eyes landed on her ocarina. "Can I have it?" it said.

Saria's heart rate increased once more. "It was a gift. I cannot give it to you."

Suddenly the Skull Kid's perpetual grin turned somewhat sinister. "But I want it. I want to play it."

"I'm sorry, but I cannot give it to you," Saria said. She bit her lip, thinking. "How about I come to the forest once a day to play the song. Then you can enjoy it without me giving you the ocarina."

The Skull Kid seemed to consider her offer. It didn't seem too used to compromise, although Saria was sure it wasn't accustomed to much social interaction in general.

"Okay," it said finally, grin no longer malicious. "Play it again?"

Saria pressed the ocarina to her lips and played. The song was easier to find this time, and she could begin to place her fingers correctly without letting the energy completely take over. Perhaps one day she would be able to teach the Skull Kid.

The two of them were there for quite some time before the Skull Kid grew bored and left Saria and Tera in the grove. The Kokiri collapsed beside a stump, which was all that remained of a tree that failed to grow back. Now however, after a while of playing, leaves and flowers had begun to spring on its surface.

"Skull Kids are real," she muttered to herself. "Skull Kids are real."

Days passed and the soothsayer refused to admit why the forest was suddenly healthy again. Saria could feel Mido's suspicion every time she visited the Lost Woods. She always requested to go alone, and usually stayed there for a much longer than anticipated.

One day she returned from the woods to see Mido's belongs cleared of their hut. She momentarily resented everything that had happened to her, all the way back to becoming the Kokiri soothsayer. But she knew what needed to be done. She was no longer fighting to protect the Kokiri, or even the forest. She was fighting for the entirety of Hyrule.


	6. The Birth of a King V

V

Ezerella could not piece it together. Her current state was certainly an indication of Link's presence in her life, but she couldn't place an exact memory of the man. Whenever she closed her eyes and tried to solidify his existence in her mind, she only saw a haze of black and red diamonds within deep, ominous eyes. What was more, no one else even recognized the name when she spoke it. She spoke to Pivona only a day ago, but her sister did not even remember talking about a Link. It seemed as if the entire city of Gerudo women failed to remember any stranger Hylian visitor. Ezerella was close to deeming herself as gone mad.

She had just begun to accept her insanity, and that the silver-haired stranger never really existed, when she missed one of her moon days. At first she wrote it off as a mere irregularity, until she missed the next one as well. Panic settled in the pit of her stomach when the third one came around and still, no blood. She spent her days in a hazy stupor, going about her daily tasks with mechanical lethargy. The only explanation for such an impossible occurrence was this unknown Hylian character, who at this point in her memory was nameless. She explained her condition to Pivona, who was just as incredulous as her, but promised to help in any way she could.

Ezerella was hidden away in Pivona's bathing chamber when she thought of one possibility: get rid of the baby. At that point her belly had become a sizeable lump, and she rested her hands on it solemnly. She could do a number of things to kill it now, or she could remain in hiding until it was born and get rid of it then. But the more she thought about these possibilities, the more she hated herself. She was going to be a mother—she couldn't possibly bring herself to do such a thing. She already loved her daughter.

But time dragged at her consciousness. She had no idea how she'd gotten pregnant. She couldn't remember any man in her life, unless one had somehow crept into her room at night without waking her. It didn't seem likely, since she was hardly desirable and rather difficult to reach in her high quarters. It kept gnawing at her, all alone as she shirked her sentry duties so no one would see her swollen belly. Eventually she wrapped herself in layers of cloth, despite the sweltering heat, and left Pivona's apartments in search of the ralzana's palace. Surely Koume would remember a male traveler.

Ezerella made it through the streets without only a few looks, due to her excessive clothing. She walked up the steps that led to the palace courtyard and pleaded with the guards, saying that a shielded nomad with Hylian sigils was making his way through the desert and she needed to speak with the ralzana immediately. She entered the palace, taking no time to admire the ornate relief work on the walls and ceiling. She'd been in the palace a few times before with her sister, but never as far as the grand foyer.

She was escorted through the foyer and up carpeted steps into the throne room. In the center of a wooden floor was an elaborate throne where Ralzana Koume, dressed in casual garments of blue and gold, sat and spoke to one of her personal guards.

Ezerella dropped down to one knee and dipped her head in a low bow. "Your Highness, I have urgent news for you," she said, praying to the Sand Goddess that the ralzana couldn't detect the dread in her voice.

Koume waved a hand in dismissal to the guard, who left to return to her station outside the other door. Ezerella was thankful for the privacy. "Explain yourself," Koume said with a calm patience.

Ezerella straightened and stood before the princess with sweaty hands clenching the folds of her pant legs. "I actually have a question for you, ralzana."

A flicker of annoyance flashed across Koume's face. "Do you think I am here to answer every peasant's questions?" she said coolly.

"It's of the utmost importance, ralzana," Ezerella said, "regarding a male visitor."

Koume shifted slightly in her chair as she considered Ezerella with a mixture of impatience and curiosity. "Well then, spit it out."

"Everything in my memory and in my common sense tells me that there was a visitor," Ezerella began. "But I cannot seem to remember him, not really. I see him only in my dreams. I've asked everyone I know, but they do not recall him either. I was wondering if you by any chance remember a recent male traveler who stayed with the Gerudo."

Koume's expression remained emotionless as she gazed at a point somewhere beyond Ezerella. "You have come," she finally said, "to inform me of a male presence in your dreams?"

Ezerella felt a pang of fear quicken her heartbeat. "Not at all," she said quickly. "I'm asking if this visitor was ever a real traveler."

"If this visitor did indeed exist at some point," Koume said icily, "do you not think that someone would have remembered him besides you?"

Ezerella had been hoping to avoid the subject, but she now realized that it was inevitable. "Ralzana, you see, there simply _had_ to have been a male traveler in our midst," she said.

"Why so?"

Ezerella slowly and anxiously let her cumbersome shawls fall to the floor. They revealed her stomach, bare and enlarged. "How else could I have become pregnant?"

Koume sat straight immediately, stone-like face settling into an unyielding emotionless stare. Her fingers tightened around the scepter in her right hand, which she held erect. "That is not possible."

Ezerella knew she had to step lightly. "It's true," she said in a shaky voice. "I have already missed three moon days and feel a constant nausea in my stomach. If no such traveler ever existed, how did this happen?"

Koume inhaled, once again gazing past Ezerella's pitiful form. "I do not know what you wish of me."

Another pang of fear. "Ralzana, there has to be a reason for—"

"I would remember a male visitor within the past year," Koume interrupted, the heated sound of anger building in her velvety voice. "Your becoming pregnant is clearly not an issue of my memory but of your promiscuous lifestyle. Surely, three months ago, you seduced one of the non-Gerudo residents in our city and are trying to cover your tracks with this ruse of forgetfulness. I certainly hope that this child will not exhibit any unusual traits for a Hylian, such as Zora flippers or Goron skin. And I certainly, above all else, hope for your sake that the child is indeed female. Now cease bothering me with your insignificant, inconvenient troubles and leave my presence."

Ezerella's brow twitched in confusion. Female? Of course the child would be female. But as two guards came to seize her arms and remove her from the palace, she remembered her conversation with Pivona, the one her sister had forgotten. She spoke of a ralzan to bring a golden age into the world. A true Gerudo man, something that legend said only happened once every hundred years. Did Ralzana Koume truly believe such a myth, just like her sister?

She had no time to question as she was escorted out of the palace. She hadn't quite known until that point what it was like to feel hopeless. But as she made her way back to Pivona's quarters there was an almost pleasant sense of pointlessness about her. Her steps were buoyed by a carefree feeling that she simply could not do anything about her situation.

The months flew by and Ezerella had effectively moved in with her sister. When the day finally came, Pivona had just returned from collecting the rest of Ezerella's belongings from her small apartment on the other side of the city. Ezerella was lying on the floor, clutching her stomach, and crying out in unbearable pain. Pivona, due to her influence, was able to call for a midwife to help deliver the baby. But Ezerella's surroundings were entirely blurred by pain and ceaseless tears. She barely noticed when Pivona and the midwife lifted her onto the bed, barely recognized the familiar face of their mother who had joined Pivona in gathering Ezerella's things. All she could feel was pain and anxiety, and she found herself praying that the labor would take her life.

Hours and hours passed however, and the pain finally stopped. Ezerella's eyes were still blurred from tears and sweat, but she could hear the faint mewling of a newborn not far from her. She heard her sister and mother laugh, heard the midwife gasp. When she found her voice, she heard herself croak to let her see him. She wanted to see her son.

After a moment of unsettling concern, the midwife handed Ezerella the baby. His skin was deep ebony and his head was covered in a thick, bloody mess of crimson hair. The child looked like the spitting image of its mother, and even if Ezerella could begin to recall its father's looks, she was sure she wouldn't find many of his traits in the baby's features.

Ezerella smiled and held the baby close to her chest. She looked up to see the other woman watching in shock, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.

"That's impossible," the midwife muttered as if to assure herself she was hallucinating.

After another moment of incredulous, tense silence, the midwife scurried out of the chamber. Pivona started to run after her, but Ezerella stopped her.

"Let her go," she said weakly, stroking her child's forehead. "Nothing will keep us apart," she added with a whisper.

It didn't take long for the ralzana to arrive. A troop of three guards stormed into Pivona's quarters, followed by the ralzana herself. She stopped at the foot of the bed and gazed at mother and son with an unreadable expression. Ezerella only smiled, tightening her grasp on the bundle in her arms, and announced very plainly that his name, after the once highly revered hero of Gerudo folktale, was Ganon.

Through the years of telling the tale of the Gerudo Ralzan's birth, the focus began to diverge. Many believed that the mother was forced to give birth by herself in her tiny apartment, with only the warmth of the hearth to welcome her child into the world. Some heard that instead of Ralzana Koume checking the baby's sex herself, the mother simply strolled straight into the palace, past guards and warriors, and declared her son's birth without so much as a tremble. One version of the story claims that Ezerella threw her son into Koume's arms and pleaded for her life.

But there was a general consensus that once Koume declared her sentence, Ezerella made no attempt at escape or even struggle. Koume ordered the guards to seize the baby and the mother, whose name, until the day Koume died, she could not remember. Pivona and the sisters' mother were taken to the inner city prisons for harboring a traitor. The baby was taken to a hidden chamber and the mother was taken to a secret chamber on the far end of the palace. There she was chained to the back of a carriage, which made its way all the way across the sandy desert toward the Snowpeak Mountains. One guard was told to keep her eyes on the prisoner at all times, and she could swear that through the intolerable wastes, trudging along behind the carriage, the prisoner was smiling, laughing, she if her fate were some joke to her.

The final truth that resides in all of the stories is the one of the mother's last moments in the realm of the living. When the guards chained her within the tomblike chambers of the Arbiter's Grounds, one heard her whisper into the fading light, "Hello, my love," before they departed. They recounted the sound of a poe's laughter while crossing the desert back to the city.

Koume had been pacing her bedchamber back and forth, one hand covering her thin lips in a very pensive expression. Had it been exactly one hundred years since a Gerudo woman gave birth to a son? Was this new boy, this Ganon, to be the next ruling Ralzan of the Gerudo? She had to act quickly, for her people still hadn't discovered the existence of a possible male Gerudo.

The ralzana was indeed torn. If this bastard of a child were to be the next ralzan, she would be damned for the rest of eternity for getting rid of it. But to accept the fact that the lowest peasant within her walls was the birth mother was simply not something Koume could tolerate. And there was certainly no way she could convince her people that the baby was of her own descent.

Koume made a quick decision to bring the baby as far away from the valley as possible. If he were the true ralzan, he would find his way back and claim the throne. But if he were simply another bastard child of some Hylian outside the desert, then he would be so for the rest of his life.

Nodding to herself on the plan, Koume turned and entered the room where the baby boy was crying. His pained expression hinted at a longing for his mother, and Koume looked down on him with something quite new in her heart: sympathy. She lifted the bundle to her chest, hushing at first with a sense of anxious urgency. But as the baby quieted, the hushing turned into a soft cooing and the princess lightly cradled the baby in her arms. "Little Ganon," she whispered on occasion, brushing a long finger against the boy's cheek. It became apparent to her in the following moments that she could not simply leave a baby Gerudo boy at someone's doorstep. No, this baby would remain with her.

Her first instinct was to rename him, give him a fully royal name and not the name of some dead, unknown fairy tale. But Ganon had a strong sound, and she had already begun referring to him as "Little Ganon." So Koume remembered her mother's name, the ralzana before her, Dorfina. The name always sounded rather elegant to Koume, and she found the combination of strength and elegance quite appealing. A smile in her eyes, the princess whispered, "Ganondorf Dragmire," and brought the new king's forehead to her lips.


	7. The Reawakening I

**A/N: I think I'm going to settle with weekly updates. So if you want to keep reading, check back every Saturday or so, or just keep the story on your Alert! Enjoy the first part of the Reawakening!**

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><p>NO ONE REALLY questioned the presence of a new royal son. Of course they speculated, but no one was about to doubt the legitimacy of this new king, the first in one hundred years. These kings brought a prosperous golden age to the Gerudo, as the legends told, so the villagers simply let his perplexing existence go.<p>

Ganondorf participated in all the usual "heir" activities, save for the class on princess etiquette. He referred to Koume as his mother, even though for the first few years of his life he was fed by one of the nursemaids who had recently mothered her own daughter. Koume spoiled him with toys and Hylian delicacies in his toddler years and after some time truly felt a love for the boy. His birth mother had been almost entirely forgotten.

When he was of age to begin his education, Ganondorf expressed a keen interest in sorcery. Koume had on many occasions found him attempting to manipulate one of his toys with no physical contact. However, she continued to deny his requests for magic lessons until she was satisfied he would succeed. But when the day came that he did, an inkling of unease settled in her stomach.

Ganondorf had been in the stables, since he had discovered in himself an affinity toward animals. He had taken a particular liking in one horse who not a single person could even recall obtaining. She was a beautiful mare with an ebony pelt and amber eyes, and no one claimed her as their own. Therefore the little king declared his ownership and no one protested, especially since there was something a little off about the horse. Ganondorf seemed to be the only one not put off by her strangely red-tinted eyes, so he seemed like a natural owner. He called her "horsey" until he saw the name "Wrana" carved into her saddle.

As his first successful attempt at magic, Ganondorf wanted to add some color to Wrana's static pelt. Koume, naturally, strongly advised him against it for fear of hurting the animal, so Ganondorf escaped into the stables when his mother thought he was at his writing lesson. After long attempts at color-producing spells he found in an old leather-bound book, he was close to giving up on his endeavor. Eager for one last hope, he leafed through the dry, yellowing pages until he came across a spell called "the Colors of Din." He barely skimmed the spell's description before turning to Wrana and chanting the ancient Hylian words. It had the word "colors" in it, so it had to produce some sort of new coloration.

But to Ganondorf's confusion, the horse let out a screech of pain and terror as its mane and tail lit fire. Her red eyes rolled as she bucked against her stall panels, whinnying chaotically. Ganondorf gazed at the book's pages for some sort of magical way to douse the fire, but in his frenzied page-turning he tore some of the yellow leaves and ruined the diagrams and phrases. It wasn't until he realized that Wrana had ceased whinnying that he looked up to find the fire gone, as well as the black hair of the horse's mane and tail. In their place were fibers of beautiful red and orange hair, the colors of a radiant fire.

Overjoyed at his horse's new coloration, Ganondorf forgot he was supposed to be at a writing lesson and ran to tell his mother. Koume, although furious at his disobedience, went with him to the stables to see what he had done to the poor animal. But her anger was replaced with admiring shock when he saw Wrana's new vibrant colors. She then decided to grant Ganondorf his wish for magic lessons.

Dread crept its way into Koume's heart when she realized she have to turn to someone else for advisement, someone she hadn't seen in years. But this person was the best sorcerer in Hyrule, had been for decades, and was also the only person Koume trusted with her deeply seated fears concerning her son. Swallowing her pride, she made the decision to contact her sister, Kotake.

Koume wrote to her sister, expressing her concerns toward Ganondorf's interest in magic. When Kotake arrived from her unknown home somewhere in the forests of the south, they locked themselves inside Koume's chamber to discuss.

"You realize this means he will have to choose between sorcery and leading the Gerudo," Koume said with a crestfallen tone.

Kotake, a slender woman with cold eyes, was exactly identical to Koume. The only differences rested in Kotake's sorcerer's garbs and a headdress with a large blue gem hanging over her forehead. "He is only a boy," she said, icy voice nonchalant. "When the time comes for him to make a decision, he will."

"You remember how it tore us apart," said Koume quietly, not looking at her sister. "Mother had to decide for us."

"That was only because we both wanted to become sorcerers and were both fit to rule," Kotake said, standing before the princess as she sat on her bed. "If one of us had chosen another hobby, we wouldn't have…" The words drifted from her as she stared out the window, lost in a memory.

"But think," Koume pressed, "if Ganondorf chooses to lead the Gerudo, I can take to magic again." She stood, taking a step toward her sister. "We can become the Twinrova again."

Kotake let a sarcastic smile spread on her lips. "We've lost that connection, sister," she said wryly. "Even if you practiced sorcery once more, we could never be as we were in our younger years."

"Your faith in our power is astonishing," Koume said. "Our own mother said we would be Hyrule's destruction if we joined forces."

"And that was why she decreed that no leader should be able to practice sorcery," Kotake said. "The two of us had too much anger in our hearts to be the Twinrova. If mother hadn't made you her successor, we'd have gone wild."

Koume followed her sister's gaze through the window. "At least let us teach my son the basics," she said. "If he wants to learn sorcery, so be it. But I cannot teach him myself."

Kotake exhaled as she considered her sister's words. It had been so long since they'd talked this peacefully, so long since she had lived within the Gerudo walls. But seeing her sister again buoyed her decision and she smiled. "You most certainly can't," she laughed. "I was always the better sorcerer."

Koume laughed with her before adjusting her headdress. "Welcome home, sister."

During her stay, all the resentment Kotake had felt toward her sister in the past vanished. She developed a liking for Ganondorf, even when Koume inevitably told her the truth about his birth. The boy admired her for teaching him magic, and they established a strong bond that Koume delighted in.

In the following days, Ganondorf's magic abilities grew exponentially. He could easily perform spells without reciting their chants; he could lift small objects to his hands without moving; he could speak words and watch as a feather pen transcribed them on a piece of parchment. He also took greatly to using his abilities to benefit his horse. He would spend afternoons in Wrana's stall, reading a book while brushes and clothes moved themselves across the horse's flanks, cleaning her fur to an iridescent sheen.

Many like to believe that the root of Ganondorf's desire for power began in his love for his horse. His wish to spoil her stemmed from his magic abilities and he asked Kotake if she knew a spell that could raise crops from the ground. Koume restricted her sister from teaching Ganondorf any nature manipulation spells, but the young king pleaded with his aunt. She made him promise only to use such magic to feed his horse, and nothing more. He agreed, and began learning the simplest of the earth manipulation spells.

Koume eventually found out about Ganondorf's endeavors and scolded Kotake for teaching him such dangerous magic.

"How is it dangerous?" Kotake said. "He wants to grow carrots to feed his dear Wrana. That's a sign of benevolence if you ask me."

"Do you know what nature manipulation leads to?" Koume said. "It leads to hurricanes and tornadoes every time he throws a temper tantrum!"

"You're being ridiculous," Kotake said.

"This is a very reasonable concern."

"I won't teach him anything else until he is old enough to know how to use magic wisely."

Koume was not satisfied, but said nothing more.

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><p>Ganondorf could no longer sleep. Nearly ever night since he had turned thirteen, he awoke to a terrible ache in his chest, causing him to wheeze in agony. Each time, Mother Koume would rush over to his bed chamber and hold him tightly, whispering soft lies into his ear. He would be okay, this was the last time, this was perfectly normal. But Ganondorf was an incredibly intelligent young boy, and he could almost taste the lies in his mother's voice. But the pain in his torso was so domineering that he said nothing in response. Each gasp of breath brought a stronger ache, as if something inside him wanted him to suffer just for his existence.<p>

One night the pain was accompanied by a nightmare. Ganondorf was atop his horse, Wrana, and a horrible figure rose above his head. It seemed shapeless, swarming with raw energy and hissing like a monstrous serpent. But the young prince couldn't move his steed, who seemed to be locked in place by this writing black mass. Suddenly the mass condensed into a mirror image of Ganondorf, although his skin was shimmering pitch black from the strange material and his hair was made of fire.

The figure grinned menacingly. "Time to wake up." And with its horrible laugh still ringing in the prince's ears, he woke with a scream, clutching his chest. The pain was so excruciating that he thought he might die in that very moment. But Koume and Kotake both came rushing into his bed chamber.

"Ganon!" Koume sat on the edge of the bed and held her son's face in her elegant, slender hands. "Ganondorf, my boy, are you all right? More pain?"

Ganondorf let out a yowl of pain as a yes, doubling over. "He's coming, Mother... He's going to kill me..."

"What in the Goddess's name are you talking about?" Kotake said, tone just as motherly as Koume's. "No one's coming to kill you, darling."

The three of them sat in the prince's room until his shuddering sobs quieted. Eventually he lay back down and took deep breaths, calming himself.

"Koume..." Kotake whispered. She nodded toward Ganondorf's chest, which was bare from his sleeping attire. Right in the center, spreading from where his heart was still beating rapidly, was a web of black lines resembling veins beneath his skin. Koume was certainly concerned, but made no comment. She smiled at her son.

"Go back to sleep, my prince," she said, leaning down and kissing his forehead. "Things will make themselves clearer in the morning." Once again, Ganondorf made no comment about the lie.

The sisters left the room and Ganondorf closed his eyes. But as soon as he did, the swirling black mass appeared before him and he opened them wide again. A flash of panic overcame his shivering body. Was he going crazy? Was this only the nightmare of a child of which he was foolishly frightened? He lay on his back for the rest of the night, not once letting himself drift off.

Back in Koume's room, the twins sat on the princess's bed.

"What do you think it means?" Koume said after a moment.

"He's still a boy," said Kotake. "We shouldn't look into until it proves detrimental."

"He's our son," said Koume. "You adopted as much interest in the boy as I have. You can't possibly feel no sympathy toward him."

"You're much too soft," spat Kotake suddenly. "You think fondness for him is nonexistent in my actions, when in truth, it is the foundation. He is a strong, young sorcerer already, and the magic he was born with is beginning to manifest itself. If we do anything to stop what may be harmless, we could stifle the growth of his inborn power."

Koume stood, holding a hand to her forehead. She felt like she was burning up, like she might be falling ill. "You've always shown your love in a cold way." She looked at her sister. "It made me wonder as a child whether you could love at all."

Kotake stood as well, walking over to the princess and taking her hands away from her face. "You're my twin. And Ganondorf is your son. Of course I love you both." She paused, her face very close to Koume's. "And I have my ways of showing love."

There was a tense moment in which the two women locked golden gazes, hearts beating in tandem. Before she knew it, Kotake's lips were pressed against Koume's. After another long moment, she smiled. "He will be fine." And with that, she left the princess's chambers.

**A/N: Oh hey Game of Thrones, how's it goin'?**


	8. The Reawakening II

**A/N: Welcome to Fanfic Friday! Works much better than Fanfic Saturday (was also an excuse to update a day early). I worked a lot with the structuring of this chapter with a beta friend, so I hope yall enjoy it!**

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><p>By the time Ganondorf turned eighteen, he had long since grown into his body. He went from a scrawny, awkward boy to a well-built, charmingly handsome young man. What's more is that he knew it, and took advantage of his charismatic personality. He was aware of his status as a male of royal blood and he took much delight in it as he stalked the streets of the city that would soon be his. He wasn't formal about it in any way however, and would often request that no one bow in his presence. Even when his mothers were walking with him, he would tell the onlookers to get up off their knees. "You're not dogs," was a well-known saying of his amongst the citizens.<p>

Still, people were afraid. Something about the prince was unsettling, even when he was helping a poor old man to his feet. Ganondorf could sense it too, and felt a strange conflict toward his people. He wanted them to feel comfortable in his presence, but realized that making them feel like equals was not comforting for them at all.

There were a select few who embraced Ganondorf's nonchalance, many of them being the young girls to whom he would offer "tours of the palace." Two that stood out however were his sword instructor and current Chief of Military, an older woman by the name of Rumalia, and her daughter Nabooru. Rumalia had been teaching Ganondorf the techniques of Gerudo sword fighting since he was ten, and was already thoroughly comfortable with reprimanding him on his mistakes. Her daughter, Nabooru, was in training to become the next Chief of Military, second in command only to the future king. As soon as she was of age to start training, she joined Ganondorf in his lessons and the two became quick friends. They often sneaked around the city together, when they were supposed to be in their lesson on the history of Hyrule. And being best friends, Nabooru was one of the first to recognize a change in the prince. His parents could not place the strange behavior, and he didn't feel compelled to share with them anyway.

"Why are they so afraid?" Ganondorf asked Nabooru one day while they sat on the dusty ground of an alley, backs against the adobe wall of a market building.

Nabooru tossed a couple "magic" beans that she'd purchased from the market into her mouth. "They're afraid of change," she said. "You're the Gerudo _prince_. You're practically change incarnate."

Ganondorf watched as people passed by the alley entrance. "But the Gerudo king is supposed to bring prosperity. Why would they fear that?"

"Surely you're aware of the talk all around Hyrule," said Nabooru.

Ganondorf was aware. Now that his reign as king was approaching rapidly, Mother Koume had him sit in on the moonly meetings with the Gerudo Ambassador, Azaroon. The journey across Hyrule Field took about a day and half on horseback, and Azaroon would sometimes send a raven with a report that the information was not worth the trip. But as of a year ago, she had begun travelling to her homeland to report crucial information. The last time she had visited, she informed the Gerudo leaders of the murmurings of discontent both within and without the walls of Castle Town. With the Goron settlement growing larger, developing its own new hierarchy to claim Death Mountain, King Daltus was growing concerned with Hyrule's recently-established borders. Many Gorons and Zoras within Castle Town held secret meetings to discuss reclaiming the region as their own. Just because these Hylians claimed to be children of the Goddess did not give them automatic rights to the previously inhabited land. What concerned Azaroon was the place of the Gerudo in this debate. They were mostly Hylian at this point, but were still considered outcasts by those with pure Hylian blood. Not to mention the round-eared humans that were considered "lower" than Hylians, with no sacred connection to the gods. It was beginning to cast a dark and strange shadow over Ganondorf's prosperous rule.

"What does any of it have to do with me?" said the prince after a brief moment of contemplation.

"Are you serious?" Nabooru said. "You'll be the King of the Gerudo in a few years. If a rebellion does break out, you'll have to choose what's best for your people."

"What if they don't like what's best for them?"

Nabooru looked down at the bag of beans in her hands. "That's a risk you'll have to take. It won't be easy, but it'll make you stand out as a great leader."

Ganondorf closed his eyes. He hadn't seen anything of the strange entity that remained in the back of his memory since it had revealed itself five years ago. His nights had been entirely sleepless, and the strange shadowy figure would not cease to torment his vision whenever his eyes were closed. When night had fallen one evening, after sword practice, Ganondorf lay on his blankets, hot from the desert air. He gazed up at the ceiling of his overly-ornate sleeping chambers deep within the palace walls, breath coming and going heavily. After a long moment of mental preparation, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He was no longer in his room, but standing atop an endless expanse of water. It was calm, despite the gray clouds above his head. Standing before him was the shadowed version of himself, small black wisps flying off in every direction. This time, a man stepped through the shadow, shaking it off like he would a cloak. He resembled the Gerudo prince, but was much older and had slightly beast-like features about him. What was more, this man was a towering sculpture of musculature, whereas the prince was still a scrawny little thing.

Ganondorf narrowed his thin, golden eyes. "Who are you?" he said coolly.

The man seemed to have a perpetual smirk about him. "I am a legend."

"Why are you here?" asked the boy. "What do you want with me?"

The man observed his hand idly, and Ganondorf noticed that his skin had a grayish pall to it. "I am your namesake, boy. I could be your father. And I want to tell you the truth about this world."

Ganondorf looked down at the water, confused. "How could you be my father?"

"How can you have two mothers?" said the man.

Ganondorf frowned. He always wondered why there were only a few other men in the Valley, but his parents always said it was just the way things were. He certainly didn't know why two mothers were required for his upbringing.

The man smirked. "My name is Ganon."

Ganondorf looked up at him. His schoolteacher had once told him the fable of Ganon and the Beast. Ganon was a mighty warrior who ruled the whole region of Lanayru, having conquered all of its evils with an almost bloodthirsty vengeance. One day, a horrible Beast wandered through his land, wanting to devour everything in sight. Wherever he stepped, the lush greenery died and withered, crumbling into the sand that now filled the Valley. Ganon, having the spirit of a thousand warriors, made a deal with the Beast. If it devoured him, he would have to leave his people alone. The Beast agreed, but when he indeed devoured Ganon, the mighty warrior did not die, but lived on as the Beast. Only then did he discover that this Beast was merely an image of himself, a primal manifestation of the "victorious" conquests that slaughtered hundreds.

"That's just a myth," said Ganondorf.

"Did I not say I was a legend?" said Ganon.

Ganondorf narrowed his eyes, watching the man carefully. "What do you mean by the truth about this world?"

Ganon laughed heartily. "You're still just a boy," he said. "You have much to learn, one step at a time."

Ganondorf smiled. Something about this figure felt comforting. He wondered if it was the feeling usually brought on by having a father. "Are you real?"

"Of course I am," said Ganon. "But I'm not yet strong enough to take corporeal form." His eyes glinted with a grin. "But don't you worry, my son. Open your eyes, and let sleep overcome you. You shall rest well tonight."

Ganondorf opened his eyes slowly to the ceiling once more. They did not stay open for long, as sleep dragged at his whole body. After a brief moment, he finally fell into the most wonderful sleep of his life.

He opened his eyes. "Come with me to Castle Town," he said suddenly, mind back in the present. "Mother Koume and Kotake are taking me for the first time tomorrow."

Nabooru laughed. "You know I can't. It's the perfect opportunity for my mother to show me how things run at the Fortress with you and Koume gone." She paused, smile fading as she looked back down at her hands. "Ask one of your girls to go."

Ganondorf was already beginning to collect a harem, but it wasn't necessarily in his favor. Many girls pursued the prince in hopes of becoming his princess, and possibly the mother of the next leader. It wasn't exactly subtle however that both Ganondorf and Nabooru preferred each other's company, but with her predesignated position among the warriors, a coupling between them would be nigh impossible. They never spoke about their feelings for each other, and were both too stubborn to do anything about it.

The next day, Ganondorf awoke to his personal servant offering him a quick breakfast of toast with purple chu jelly and salted Deku nuts before his journey across the Desert and Hyrule Field. The young prince ate in silence before dressing in the traditional garbs of Gerudo royalty. His robes were a deep blue with golden trimming, and he adorned his forehead with a golden gemstone circlet that held back his chin-length crimson hair. The stone was a symbol of high importance to the Gerudo, even though they were only ever worn outside the Desert as a means of identification.

The carriage couldn't travel across the Desert's unstable sands, so the travelers had to traverse the sand on horseback. Ganondorf was delighted by this fact; he rarely got to ride his dear Wrana, at least for extended periods of time. By the time he had mounted his steed, he had bolted off ahead of the group, much to his parents' frustration. But as long as they were in Gerudo territory, they were confident in their son's ability to defend himself if the need arose.

Once across the monotonous sands, following the red signal flags, Ganondorf came across the Gerudo Fortress, where Nabooru and all the sentries and warriors trained and resided. The huge complex was right on the edge of the Desert, looking out over the Valley that connected to Hyrule Field. It was also frequented by the prince himself for his sword training.

But Ganondorf couldn't stop here now, as much as he'd like to. He strode forward through the Valley, skillfully guiding his horse through the narrow passage. The mountainous region which once housed some sort of mining facility was slightly more elevated over the Field. The mines had long since been deserted when the Gerudo made their home there.

Finally at the bottom of the Valley trail, Wrana stopped. There, where the stony sand gave way to lush grass, was a single Gerudo sentry tower. It was fitted with all supplies necessary for a trip either across the Field or the Desert, including the carriage that would soon transport the travelers toward the heart of Hyrule. The others eventually caught up while Ganondorf allowed Wrana to drink from the temporary stables behind the sentry tower. After a brief argument with his parents, he was eventually given begrudging permission to ride his horse across the Field instead of sitting in the carriage. Koume and Kotake had argued that it wasn't professional having the future king show up on horseback, but clashing with their son's stubborn personality rarely resulted in success. Thus, Ganondorf mounted his horse once again and the miniature caravan set out for Castle Town.


	9. The Reawakening III

**A/N: I missed Fanfic Friday :U But that's okay! Hope you all enjoy c:**

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><p>As the spires of Hyrule Castle eventually cleared the horizon, Ganondorf had begun to feel a strange ache in his chest, one he hadn't felt for years. It was a similar sensation to that of his sleepless nights in his younger years, but it was no longer accompanied by a sharp agony. The ache felt more like something inside him was trying to break free, but not destroy its host in the process. And even when the young prince closed his eyes, the strange entity Ganon was nowhere to be found.<p>

Ganondorf barely had time to consider this ache before his thoughts were overcome by what was happening as they neared the drawbridge. His parents had often made such a fuss over presentation, over Ganondorf recognizing himself as higher than the other Gerudo. But the obvious lack of reception for the visitors was abundantly clear as the various guards sent distasteful looks their way. The one who was tasked with the burden of checking visitors before opening the drawbridge seemed to be completely unaware of the group's royal status amongst the Gerudo, rooting through their belongings for weapons and patting down the Gerudo guards with crude sneers on their faces. Never before had Ganondorf even considered getting anything but respect from others, for even if the Gerudo citizens looked at him in fear, it was founded in respect. Eventually the Hylian guard cleared them for entry, and the drawbridge slowly lowered.

"Head on through," he said, a smirk about his lips. Then, as they made their way past, Ganondorf heard him mutter under his breath, "Gerudo thieves."

The stereotype had been assigned to the Gerudo ever since the first group was officially invited to a viewing with the King many, many years ago. Bemused by the high concentration of men and interesting delicacies, the women stole not only money and items, unaware of the town's trading policies, but husbands and wives as well. Ever since then, they were coined as thieves and rarely invited to return.

Ganondorf had never before heard this steretype and was thoroughly confused by the guard's comment. But Mother Koume told him to pay no mind continue onward.

But the feeling of pure strangeness was impossible to shake. Ganondorf wanted to look upon this new place in wonder and curiosity, but he felt like some sort of spectacle being paraded through the city. Many citizens cast them harsh or condescending looks, and a few whispered to each other at the prince's passing. Ganondorf watched them closely, confused by their strange clothing and incredibly pale features. There were, of course, a few Hylians living within Gerudo territory, but they had clearly adopted the ways of their surroundings and presented no sense of superiority. But Ganondorf could only feel a confused anger as he guided his horse through the city streets.

They were led to a rickety stable in what seemed to be the back-end alleys of the town's main plaza. There, they unsaddled their horses and Ganondorf helped his parents out of the carriage, since no one else would be bothered to do so. The prince put a hand on the stable boy's shoulder, noticing him gazing in wonder at Wrana's unnantural and vibrant coloration.

"You look after her," he said. He winked kindly at the boy before stepping toward the open streets.

"We have a little time before our meeting with the King," said Mother Koume. Ganondorf was pleased at the prospect of wandering the streets, but also hesitant. He caught the looks of a few Hylians watching them through the throng of people in the marketplace. "I understand that this is a bit shocking," Koume continued.

"It's not worth getting upset over," said Kotake.

"I'm not upset," Ganondorf said. He flashed a meaningless smile at his aunt before stalking out into the sunlight.

The city, despite its cool inhabitants, was truly a sight for desert eyes. The cobbled streets of the market were buzzing with vendors and gossip, mostly about the Gerudo visitors, and all kinds of fascinating treasures lined the stalls. Ganondorf was able to ignore the ache within his chest as he perused the various objects, especially when the vendors were kind as opposed to silent in their judgments.

Ganondorf stopped at a stall after purchasing a bottle of milk from one Talon, who owned a dairy farm and ranch not far from the city walls. But this particular stall housed its own forge and a whole array of interesting weapons Ganondorf had never seen before. The Gerudo almost exclusively used curved scimitars and spears, and the long straight edges of these swords were unusual and appealing.

"You a swordsman, young man?" someone said before emerging from behind the forge. He was a light-haired Hylian of about thirty, and wore the clothing of a blacksmith.

"You could say that," said Ganondorf. He ran his hand along the smooth steel of a long blade.

"You've certainly got a good eye," said the man. He eyed the Gerudo prince behind guarded eyes. "You're definitely not from around here."

Ganondorf smirked. "I'm from the Gerudo Valley."

"Gerudo?" said the smith. "I thought they were all women."

"They are," said Ganondorf. He grinned up at the man. "I guess I'm just a legend."

The blacksmith chuckled after a brief moment. "The name's Cedric. I'm the Royal blacksmith."

"Ganondorf," said the Gerudo. "I guess that means you're pretty good."

"I would hope so," said Cedric.

When Ganondorf picked up the longsword, he could feel the blacksmith tense. "Don't worry," he said. "If anything breaks, I can compensate."

"Why don't you come around back?" said Cedric. "There's a miniature sparring hall. And people who can defend themselves if you accidentally swing a sword at them."

Ganondorf followed Cedric behind the shop's counter and through a doorway. Behind it was a small courtyard, which made the Gerudo suspect that this Cedric was of higher importance than he let on. The courtyard had a single guard in it, standing in front of a building that arched into the sky, big wooden doors leading inside.

Cedric seemed to pick up on Ganondorf's awe. "Some of the younger knights-to-be begin their training here," he said. "Yours truly is the mentor."

They stepped inside the sparring hall, which had several logs with painted targets on them scattered about the large room. Several weapons were mounted on the walls, including a Gerudo spear. There were a few young boys tagging the logs with practice swords. Ganondorf gripped the longsword in his hand and spun in place, making contact with an upright log. It rocked slightly, held in place by a metal brace on the floor.

"Interesting," said Cedric. He lifted a sword from a rack, walking toward the Gerudo. "Is that a technique taught in your land?"

"It's one of the most basic," said Ganondorf. "You must teach things rather differently."

After a few more moments of sparring, Ganondorf declared that he would like the purchase the sword to add to his collection.

"It's rather expensive, young man," said Cedric.

Ganondorf pulled out his wallet, rather slim in appearance. But when he started withdrawing three golden ruppees at a time, Cedric held out a hand to stop him.

"All right, all right," he said, laughing a little incredulously. "Slow down there. Clearly money is not an issue for you. Why are you so eager to get your hands on a simple longsword?" It wasn't necessarily a sales tactic; he wanted this strange young man to get the best quality sword for his money.

"It's not simple," said Ganondorf. "I've never seen a sword like this."

"You should see the Royal Armory," said Cedric. "It's more of a gallery than a place for knights to equip themselves. A few of my most prized pieces are held there."

"Could I?" Ganondorf said. He placed the longsword on a rack beside them. "I am meeting with your King later, but I might have some time to take a look around."

Cedric raised his eyebrows. After a moment he said, "You're a lot more than just a Desert boy, aren't you?"

Ganondorf grinned. "I am the Gerudo Prince."

Cedric smiled, eyes glinting with curiosity. "Come with me."

The two left the sparring hall, Cedric leaving his shop in the hands of an apprentice. They wove throughout the market, and Ganondorf found it easier to ignore the strange looks from other Hylians. At the end of the marketplace was a large fountain with a winged woman in the center, most likely Hylia herself. Ganondorf felt a pang in his chest, but he shoved the feeling aside even as it grew stronger the more they neared what could only have been Hyrule Castle.

Passing through the bazaar, they made their way through what must have been the lower class residency of the town. Ganondorf noticed many looks of wonderment, but not condescension. He also saw that these people were round-eared, or of another species entirely. They huddled in their doorways, faces somewhat dirtied and bewildered. Ganondorf was aware of the sections of Gerudo Valley that housed the lower class citizens, but never saw their faces quite like this. It added a weight to the ache in his chest that he'd have rather avoided.

Slipping past the residency, a door with the symbol of the Triforce on it appeared in front of them. Cedric turned to Ganondorf as they stopped. "How about we skirt some of the formalities?" He opened the door to a narrow passage, a few candles lighting the way. As they passed through, Cedric informed the Gerudo that they were taking a somewhat secretive passage into the Castle, avoiding the high-quality search that is warranted by the knights of Hyrule. The passage eventually opened up to a larger room, and Cedric pressed against the wall at the end of it. It opened gradually, and he waved Ganondorf inside. Once the door was closed behind them, it seemingly vanished into the ornate wall. They were standing at the end of an expansive corridor, royal blue carpeting beneath their feet. The walls were decorated with highly-detailed paintings of the former kings and queens, and a larger painting of the last Queen Zelda hung above their heads. Her hair was a dark blonde, and her crystal-like blue eyes mirrored those of the goddess Hylia's in traditional artwork. Ganondorf found her beautiful, but in a hollow and uninteresting way. The strange sensation in his chest tightened as he gazed up at the painting.

"The armory is just down here," said Cedric, breaking his train of thought. They walked down the hallway, the blacksmith occasionally nodding at the odd guard who didn't seem to ask what Ganondorf was doing there. They made it to a pair of doors shaped in an arch, and Cedric unlocked them with a key he pulled from his pocket. "Welcome to the Hyrule Castle Armory."

The room was incredibly large, extending many lengths in every direction. As if it were mimicking a library set-up, the hall was lined with racks and racks of weapons, categorized into different types. Ganondorf had never seen such a selection, considering the minimalistic weapons of the Gerudo armories. He wandered up and down the aisles, smiling at the various swords and bows with arrows. He'd never used a bow and arrow before, but had seen some hanging on the wall of the Fortress back in the Desert. The weapons were behind glass however, so he couldn't lift them from their pedestals.

"Take a look at this," said Cedric from the end of an aisle. Ganondorf made his way over to where the blacksmith was standing, looking up at pair of swords mounted in the shape of an X on the wall.

"What's this?" said Ganondorf.

"Your name," Cedric said in response. "You were named after the great warrior of the Gerudo, Ganon, right?"

Ganondorf felt his chest clench as the name was said. He bit his tongue however, determined to ignore it. "That is correct."

"Well one of Castle Town's most renowned scholars has become rather interested in the Gerudo," said Cedric. "He requested a piece to honor the legend. These swords are called Ganon's Swords, and are supposed to be the ones he used to conquer the sands."

Ganondorf looked at Cedric. "Why would a Hylian from Castle Town be so interested in the legend of the Desert People?"

"It's a good question," said Cedric. "He is getting rather old of course, and probably losing some of his previously astounding mental capacity. Some say he's been going a little crazy with this new obsession with the legend of Ganon and the Beast."

Ganondorf couldn't ignore the feeling anymore. He clutched a hand to his chest, staggering backward.

"Are you all right?" said Cedric, worry coating his voice as he reached a hand out toward the prince.

"I'm fine," said the Gerudo through clenched teeth. "Just a little light-headed I suppose. It's been quite the journey."

"I imagine so. Why don't we get you back to the marketplace so you can get ready for your meeting with the King?"

As Cedric led the way back, Ganondorf cast a final glance at the swords on the wall. A flurry of whispered flooded his thoughts, seeming to call him toward the swords. He shook his head vigorously, attempting to rid his mind of the strange voices. But he wanted to wield those swords. They were made for his namesake after all. Eventually he turned away, following the blacksmith back out of the Castle.


	10. The Reawakening IV

**5 days earlier...**

A light rain fell from the sky, as if the Goddesses themselves were in mourning. In the hazy gloom, a single rider strode across Hyrule Field. A black cloak with gold trim shielded the rider from the rain, billowing behind as the white horse carrying it galloped toward Hyrule Castle on the horizon. They hadn't been traveling for long, but the rider urged the horse onward. The drawbridge was already lowered as the rider approached, awaiting the visitor's arrival. The horse strode right through, and the Hyrule guards watched carefully from their sheltered watchtowers. They knew that horse, even they didn't recognize the cloaked rider.

Guiding the horse skillfully throughout the outskirts of the town, the rider passed straight by the upper and lower class residencies, and their respective stables. After weaving through the cobbled paths and past the guards who made no comment, the rider finally stopped. They were in a large courtyard, rectangular hedges and flowerbeds leading toward a small amount of steps that stretched the length of the Castle front. The rider led the horse up the few steps, sheltering them from the rain beneath the stone awning. Dismounting effortlessly the rider finally lowered the cloak's hood to reveal a young woman with sharp features, darker skin, and a head of strikingly blonde hair, tied back in a tight ponytail. But her most notable feature by far was the pair of piercing red eyes. It was a trait that marked her as what she really was, a living mystery: one of the ancient Sheikah tribe. And although many of the guards had never seen a Sheikah before, they all recognized one and new the significance of one's presence.

When the large double doors opened, a stout man with a thick head of brown hair and mustache wearing deep orange robes with symbols of the Triforce embroidered on the sleeves looked up at the Sheikah. "You've come," he said urgently. "Come inside, please, out of the wet. We will see to your horse. Marko." He gestured to one of the boys waiting by his side patiently. Marko took the white horse's reigns, guiding him across the courtyard toward the Castle stables. The Sheikah wordlessly followed the older man inside.

"My name is Rauru," he said once the doors had shut behind them with a loud, echoing bang. "I'm the castle steward." When the Shiekah said nothing in response, he nodded a little anxiously. "I will lead you to the King. He is waiting in the inner courtyard."

They walked through the spacious hall, and the Sheikah gazed around with no real expression on her face. The ceiling was covered in elaborate relief work depicting the Golden Goddesses' creation of Hyrule, along with the heroic and selfless conquests of Hylia. It was truly a masterpiece that went largely unseen by most of the population.

When they entered the courtyard, it was teeming with life. To either side of the pathway, flowers from all over the world blossomed in abundance. Insects of various kinds fluttered and buzzed about the Sheikah's head that she'd never even heard of before. Small streams flowed between the flowerbeds to a central pond, where right in the middle rested a small, covered pavilion. Beneath the shelter from the rain sat King Daltus himself, eyes glued to an old leather-bound book. He was still a young man, not yet married. His hair was a light brown and facial features rather bulky. He wore a garment of red and gold, and the symbol of the Triforce hung around his neck.

"Your Highness," said Rauru, "you have a visitor."

The King looked up. "Yes, I see." His voice was rather elegant, yet with an underlying hint of ruggedness. "Thank you, Rauru. Will you stay for our meeting?"

"Certainly, Your Highness," said the steward.

King Daltus looked at the Sheikah somewhat expectantly. "Who might you be?"

The Sheikah stepped forward, bowing at her waist. "Your Highness, I am the shaman of Kakariko Village, the residency of Sheikah just on the outskirts of Hyrule Field," she said with an incredible formality. "My name is Impa."

The King's eyes narrowed for the briefest of moments. "No doubt a family name."

Impa straightened again, red eyes revealing no emotion. "It is shared with my ancestors." She folded her hands behind her back.

"Have a seat," said the King, gesturing to both the Sheikah and his steward. They walked across the flat bridge and took seats across from the King. "You must be young for a Kakariko shaman."

"Not at all, Your Highness," said Impa. "Sheikah live for hundreds of years. We age and mature accordingly. Although I may appear a twenty-year-old, I have lived for nearly sixty Hylian years now."

"How fascinating," said the King. "Are there many of you in the village?"

"The Sheikah prefer a secretive lifestyle," said Impa. "I'm sure this is why we have adopted the name of the Shadow Folk from your citizens."

The King's eyes glinted in the dim lighting. "Anyhow," he said after a small pause. "It appears Rauru's message reached you in good time."

Rauru nodded. "Yes. I'm glad the symbol of the owl has still held its place in this era. Thank you for coming."

"Anything to serve the family of our Goddess," said Impa. Her voice, although still stoic on the surface, contained the slightest hint of malcontent. Even though the Sheikah lived to serve the Royal Family and protect the mortal forms of the Goddess Hylia, their oath to secrecy and discovering the truth often revealed information that painted the mortals a darker color.

"Shall we cut to the chase?" said Rauru, sitting forward. "Impa, I'm sure it's no secret, the rumors floating around Hyrule." When Impa remained silent, he continued. "Many have become...displeased with Hyrule's position in the land."

King Daltus looked at Impa. "Although we have done everything we can to serve our people." Impa's expression didn't flicker. "I'm sure you are well-versed in Hylian history."

Impa nodded. "My people have been around longer than the Hylians."

The King smiled. "I'm sure. In fact, they were a key factor in Hyrule's salvation."

"It wasn't Hyrule at the time," said Impa.

After a terse moment, Rauru spoke up. "What we are trying to say is that the Sheikah were a great help when we were in peril before. And now, our land might be in danger once more. After His Highness announced his motion to unify all of Hyrule under the Royal Family, including the Goron settlement, there has been endless talk about rebellion."

"I've heard," said Impa.

Rauru shifted slightly, unaware of what to do with the Sheikah's nonchalance. "We are afraid that the humans who occupied this land before the Hylians descended might join forces with the opposing side."

"They call themselves the Dinerats," said the King, "most likely as a reference to the Goddess who created the land."

"For fear of receiving a distasteful name from those who oppose us," said Rauru, "we've coined a term for our followers. The Adventaries."

"Those who believe and venerate the coming of the Goddess," said the King.

Rauru continued, "It has become clear to us that many do not see Hylia as a savior, but as an abandoner. That she only selected a few to be her chosen, and the rest were left to suffer on the ground. They make no acknowledgement of all she went through for the salvation of Hyrule."

Impa nodded. "What exactly is their quarrel?"

"They do not wish to serve under one kingdom," said King Daltus.

"Are there benefits to doing so?"

"Certainly. I plan to let every province maintain its current status, just to pledge fealty. They'll of course gain military and financial advantages, save for a bit of tax come our way. It's practically a benefit in every way."

"They only oppose," said Rauru, "because the Royal Family is Hylian."

Impa nodded, pondering to herself for a moment. "So the Dinerats consist of humans, Gorons, and Zoras." The two men nodded. "What about the Gerudo?"

For a moment the men said nothing. After a displeased look, the King finally said, "What about them?"

Impa looked at the King long and hard. If anything revealed what she was thinking, it was those bright red eyes staring for an indefinite amount of time at their victim. Eventually, she said, "They're Hylian too, no?"

Rauru shifted uncomfortably while the King returned Impa's hard gaze.

"They were once something entirely different," said King Daltus. "Now they have become some kind of hybrid race. It is not our say whose side they will choose to take."

"There are no non-Hylians on the side of the Adventaries then?" said Impa.

"I'm sure there are," said Daltus. "But the point of this meeting is not who is on each side, but that there are even sides at all."

Impa held the King's gaze. "Yes. You are informing the Sheikah of the looming possibility of a civil war."

The King seemed to tense at the comment, jaw clenching. "It is one I am rather reluctant to admit."

Impa nodded. She looked to Rauru, who had been nervously and idly wringing his hands. "Is your military prepared for war?"

"That is the idea," said the steward with an anxious laugh. "But what country is prepared for civil war?"

The Sheikah nodded again. "As you may be aware already, Kakariko and the Sheikah tribe will fight by the side of the Royal Family at any cost."

"That is what we like to hear," said the King, standing up. "It is good to know that in these trying times we still have a constant ally."

Impa and Rauru stood as well. The King excused himself from the courtyard, leaving the steward to guide their guest out of the castle. But Rauru turned to the Sheikah, voice lowered.

"Impa," he said quietly, "I realize there is danger stirring in our land with all this talk of rebellion. But there is something else much deeper occurring."

Impa, standing a foot taller than the Hylian, looked down at him. "Something is awakening. I believe I've noticed as well."

Rauru nodded vigorously. "Yes, I imagined you would, being the shaman of your people. I have been reluctant to speak directly to the King about it, since the rebellion has weighed more on his shoulders than he lets on."

Impa was quiet for a while, before lowering her voice as well. "The land itself is reawakening," she said. "Something is approaching, and the first signs of its coming have already revealed themselves."

"I agree," said Rauru, "and I believe you are the first."

Impa knew what he was referring to; her name was no coincidence considering the Sheikah tradition of naming. Being a tribe of truth-seekers, newborns are not "named" until the name is discovered through the Lens of Truth. Often the name is not known until the child has developed cohesive sentence structure in its thoughts. Impa's name was seen the first time her mother used the Lens, a few days after her daughter's birth.

"My name," said the Sheikah.

"You bear the name of the ancient Sheikah who assisted Hylia in her quest to save Hyrule. We mustn't overlook this obvious sign that she is returning. It is the ideology of our people!"

Impa shot Rauru a somewhat stern look. "I'd be careful what you claim, steward." With that, she fastened the cloak around her shoulders and turned on her heel to leave.


	11. The Reawakening V

**A/N: I would like to thank Skyrim and the Shifting World series by Philippa Ballatine.**

WHEN GANONDORF ENTERED the castle five days later, his whole torso was in a constant state of aching. He would have noticed the relief work all over the grand entrance hall if he hadn't been concentrated on walking forward and not falling on his face. There was a new determination about him to represent the Gerudo in a formidable way, to impress not only the King but the people of Castle Town. The Gerudo guards were not allowed to accompany them inside the castle, so it was just the three of them following a young Hylian named Marko. He led them down a wide corridor off to the left of the hall, into a small room lit with dim candlelight and occupied by several guards. There was a large table with a map of Hyrule in the center of the room, small flags placed in certain spots. Racks of weapons lined the walls, as well as lockers for the knights. Behind the table stood a tall, handsome man with dark brown hair and wearing a knight's armor. He looked up at the visitors with a pleased smile.

"Ah! There you are!" he said cheerily, and Ganondorf narrowed his eyes. "It's been quite some time, hasn't it?" He walked forward, around the table. "Koume and Kotake Dragmire." Holding both their arms, the man kissed them on the cheek. The women smiled, but said nothing.

Ganondorf was appalled at such blatant behavior of informality. But he too held his tongue.

"And you must be Lord Ganondorf," said the knight. He stood before the prince and bowed slightly. "My name is Commander Vincent of the district Erudone. It's a pleasure to meet you." He straightened and held out a hand. Somewhat puzzled, Ganondorf took it with a firm shake.

"The pleasure is mine," he said emotionlessly.

"You must tell me," said Vincent a little quietly, leaning in closer to the prince. "What is it like being an eighteen-year-old prince in a territory of mostly..." He paused, eyes glinting curiously. "Shall we say, pansexual women?" He grinned.

Ganondorf stared, eyes wide. The stereotypes attached to the Gerudo in this place were quite astonishing. After a confused moment he said, "Oh, I... It's nice."

Vincent let out a bellowing laugh, clapping Ganondorf on the back. "I imagine so. And with this beautiful woman as a mother, it's hard to imagine you have difficulty with the ladies." Ganondorf only chuckled smilelessly. "Right then. I suppose you are wondering why you aren't looking at the King right now."

"It crossed my mind," said Ganondorf.

"Well." Vincent clapped his hands together, walking around to the other side of the table. "We have some political issues to discuss before your viewing. I'm sure Azaroon has filled you in."

Ganondorf wanted to smack this man for speaking so informally about high status citizens of the Gerudo. "She did speak of the talk around Castle Town."

"All of Hyrule, in fact," said Vincent. He gestured to the map on the table. "We've sent scouts to nearly every corner of the country to determine where allegiances lie, save for the Gerudo Desert of course, since no one can traverse those sands without the help of a native. The red flags indicate those who oppose the King, and the gold flags represent those who support unification under one banner. As you can see, the country is rather divided in the issue." He pointed to the area known as Zora's Domain. "The Zoras kept quite the isolated existence until we announced our plan for unification. After Faron's Hurricane, they believed the flooding to be a sign that the region belonged to them and them alone, so they are rather reluctant to share." He moved north to point out Death Mountain. "Death Mountain has become home to a settlement of Gorons, from our northern neighbors of Goronia. The colony has grown rather immensely into a city, and all we ask is that the region become an official province of Hyrule. But the Gorons are determined to remain tied to their homeland and do not wish to pledge fealty. There are, as you see, several districts of that city that are for unification, but the majority lies with the opposition."

Kotake held out a hand, interrupting Vincent's stream of explanations. "May I ask why you are telling us this?"

Vincent stopped, smiling at the Gerudo. "It is vital for our western neighbors to know the facts before making a life-changing decision."

Ganondorf's jaw set. Now he understood. He understood why Hylian knights were position at the ready all around them, why they had been taken here first, before entering the presences of the King. They wanted to make sure the Gerudo were indeed allies before risking King Daltus's life to these "thieves."

Vincent smiled, no warmth in his eyes. "The Gerudo warriors, although isolated as you are, have an incredibly prominent military standing," he said. "Our future courses of action heavily depend on where you stand with this issue."

Koume stepped forward. "What if we choose neither side?"

"I advise otherwise," said Vincent. "There are many disadvantages to abstaining from participation in a war directly on your doorstep."

"You believe war is coming?" said Kotake.

Vincent looked at her, a rather sly smile on his lips. "I guarantee it."

Ganondorf's brow furrowed slightly. His heart had begun pounding furiously, the ache in his chest growing stronger.

Koume leaned forward toward Vincent, saying in a hushed tone, "He is only a boy, Commander. You are really asking him to speak on behalf of his people?"

The room began spinning.

"He will be your leader in a matter of years, will he not?" said Vincent. "We must know now where his loyalties lie."

At that moment, the door to the tactics room opened, and the castle steward entered. "Commander, Ambassador Azaroon wishes to enter."

Ganondorf stumbled backward, slamming his back against the wall as his face contorted in pain. Koume and Kotake had rushed over to hold him, but he barely noticed. As soon as his eyes shut, all he could see was blackness, and an immense, burning wall of flames.

* * *

><p>When Ganondorf opened his eyes, he was on a comfortable bed mat in a warmly-lit room. A wonderful aroma of incense flowed around him, and he sat up cautiously. His robes had been removed, and his chest was bare. When he looked down at it, he could see multiple wounds where he had been clawing at himself viciously. But between the scabs were faintly pulsing black veins, as if his blood had turned to tar in in his chest.<p>

"How are you feeling?"

Ganondorf looked around to see a younger woman seated at the far end of the room. She had golden hair and fair skin, and was wringing a rag in hot water.

"Fine, I suppose," said the Gerudo.

The girl smiled. "Good. You were unconscious for quite some time." Her voice was soft and sweet, like flower petals. She stood, bringing the warm rag over to Ganondorf. Kneeling beside him, she pressed the rag to his chest. He inhaled at the sting, but it soon soothed the pain.

"Thank you," he said quietly. He watched the girl rub the wet towel across his chest, blonde hair tucked behind her pointed ears. His eyes slid down the curve of her neck, across her breasts, and down the slim length of her arm to the hand on his chest. She was an image of purity to the Hylians, a sweet young girl who not only resembled their precious Goddess in appearance, but also had soothing hands and a knack for healing and aromatherapy. Ganondorf was the opposite, an image of mutation and ruggedness with his dark and calloused skin. She was innocence and beauty. And all Ganondorf wanted in the world at that very moment was to destroy that image. He wanted to force himself upon her until she was no longer a sweet girl but a soiled, imperfect, and entirely ruined thing. It was her radiant innocence that made him want her all the more fiercely.

The girl looked at his chest, tracing the black veins with the wet rag. "I don't know what it is," she said. "I've never seen anything like it."

"It's not the first time it's happened," said Ganondorf. "Once when I was a boy, they appeared."

"Does it hurt?" she said.

"No," said Ganondorf. The girl lifted her other hand to touch a vein with her delicate fingers. The Gerudo inhaled, tensing every muscle in his body so not as to pull her against him.

"Sorry." The girl pulled her hand away with a nervous laugh just as the door opened and Koume and Kotake entered in a flustered hurry.

"My boy," said Koume, kneeling beside the prince. The girl stood, straightening her skirts. Koume's face was ragged with worry. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Mother, I'm fine," said Ganondorf. "What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," said Kotake. "After you began attacking yourself, you seemed to lose all consciousness. It wasn't long before you passed out, and we took you to the castle infirmary."

"You were out three days," said Koume.

Ganondorf looked down at his chest. "I have no idea what came over me." He glanced up at the girl, who was watching while she rinsed the rag.

Kotake stood. "You, girl, please give us a minute alone." The girl nodded, making a hasty exit.

"Ganondorf," said Koume quietly, "I know this was a lot to learn. You're barely a grown man and the King of the Hylians wants you to side with him in a possible war. It's too much for a young prince."

"Do not underestimate me, Mother," said Ganondorf. "I am aware of and accept this responsibility as future King of the Gerudo."

Kotake smiled, but Koume only looked concerned. "You don't become King for another seven years."

"Perhaps it should be sooner," said Ganondorf. "I know I am still young but I am the prince of the Gerudo. I am supposed to bring prosperity to our people. Wouldn't you want that sooner rather than too late, after a war has desecrated our people?"

"He has a valid point," said Kotake.

"You both forget who the ruler here is," Koume snapped. The red jewel atop her forehead glinted in the candlelight. "I will ultimately decide what is best for our people."

Ganondorf said nothing. He never thought he would wish to become King earlier than anticipated. But something stirred his thoughts, as if something were reawakening within him.


	12. The Reawakening VI

**A/N: Agh, a little late. I blame finals and personal life stress. ANYWAY big chapter *waggles eyebrows* Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>NABOORU FIDDLED WITH the sentry flag above her head, eyes gazing at some unknown point in the distance. She had noticed a lingering distance growing between Ganondorf and herself, which was inevitable. He had started spending more time in his sorcery lessons with Kotake in the palace, rediscovering a keen interest in magic. It only meant that he spent less time at the Fortress, where his sword training took place. Nabooru was annoyed at her slight feeling of disappointment. She knew she shouldn't care where Ganondorf's feelings lay, especially considering his obviously careless treatment toward women. Still, every time she saw him whisk another pretty girl off her feet, to be taken to his bed that night, she felt a whole array of emotions, from sorrow to anger at herself. She found that training with her mother when the prince was in his magic lessons was a good way to channel these unwanted emotions.<p>

But this morning, Rumalia had told her to meet by the Fortress entrance as opposed to their usual training grounds spot. Nabooru knew that at any moment, the prince could be riding by on his beloved horse, possibly for a day of sword training. She wanted to wait and see if he would indeed come and simultaneously leave before she could. Her mother's approach interrupted her thoughts.

"Are you ready?" said the swords master.

"What for?" Nabooru said.

"I've got something to show you," said Rumalia. "Well, several things. But it involves a small trip across the Desert."

Nabooru's heart leapt slightly. She knew where they were headed. Most Gerudo were not allowed to set foot inside, save for the guards themselves. And, of course, the Chief of Military. It was a part of the initiation ceremony, to venture deep within the underground halls. "The Arbiter's Grounds."

Rumalia smiled. "I'm sure he'll be pleased to meet you," she added in a whisper.

Nabooru's eyebrows rose. She looked at her mother incredulously. "You mean… the Arbiter?" she said. "He's real?"

"Very real," said Rumalia. "And I am sure that you're aware of how confidential this information is. Not even our future king may know." She looked gravely at the young warrior. "It is a secret honor passed down from Chief to Chief, and if the tradition is broken, the Arbiter will leave this realm and no one will be left to guard the Void between realms."

Nabooru took a deep breath. She watched as Gerudo sentries went about their business, unaware of the wondrous secrets being passed from Rumalia's lips.

"Do you accept this honor, Nabooru?" said Rumalia.

"Of course," said the Chief-in-training. "But I don't understand. I thought I was only allowed to set foot inside the Grounds when I was to become Chief."

Rumalia's face set slightly, an expression of concern on her face. "Things are changing, Nabooru," she said. "Things are being set in motion that would normally take years. This is an exception that must be made."

After a moment, Nabooru nodded. Her heart was pounding in excitement and apprehension. "Let's get going then."

During the trip across the sand, all thoughts of Ganondorf left Nabooru's mind. She skillfully guided her horse through the edges of the city and then across the Desert toward the distant building. The Grounds always seemed to be shrouded in a cloud of sand, just enough so that the entire building had a ghostly pall to it when looked at from the city. The sand got so thick in the air as they neared that the guards of the Grounds had to guide them the rest of the way. Nabooru wondered if they knew of the Arbiter's existence. It was somewhat of a frightening children's tale to get them to stay within the law. The Arbiter was a terrifying spirit from the realm of evil itself, and you would be at his mercy if you did not make your bed every morning. Nabooru never believed it based solely on the fact that he was depicted as a man. Even now, as the looming structure came into clearer view, she wondered if this was some sort of elaborate prank. But Rumalia's stern expression as they dismounted, leaving the guards to tend to their horses, told her otherwise.

Nabooru gazed up at the building before her. Leading up a tall set of steps was the prison itself, where the spirits of the damned were sentenced to death. It loomed over them like a dissatisfied mother, watching her child's every move.

"This will not be an easy task, mentally," Rumalia said suddenly. "People are left to die here, with no further thought."

"I'll be okay," said Nabooru. But her heart pounded and her palm grew damp.

They made their way up the steps, where two guards pulled at a pulley of chains until the massive stone doors opened. What could only be the smell of death seeped outside, and Nabooru scrunched her nose in distaste. Without further hesitation, mother and daughter stepped inside and the doors banged shut behind them.

The interior of the prison was dark and dank, lit only by a few large candles lining the walls. There were no cells like in the temporary prisons in the city; instead chains attached the walls themselves still held tightly to the decayed corpses of prisoners, as if the shackles had been fitted to the bone itself. There was a crumbling statue directly before them, and two staircases on either side leading to a higher floor of separate chambers. To their sides were also two staircases that led down into the depths of the prison.

"He is waiting for us," said Rumalia. "Come."

As the two descended into the Desert itself, Nabooru stayed close to her mother's side. "So why is this exactly…necessary?" she said quietly. "I mean, why reveal himself to a select few in the first place?"

"The Arbiter does not help us out of kind and selfless generosity," said Rumalia. "When the Gerudo first settled here, the Desert was filled with horrible and demonic spirits. They plagued our homes, our children, our dreams. We needed a place where we could banish them, without unleashing the realm of evil on our new home. We needed help, preferably from someone who knew her way about evil spirits." Rumalia paused, turning to face her daughter. "You must understand that we were desperate, and went to any means necessary to vanquish this evil."

Nabooru looked at her mother in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well who do you think would know evil in all of its ways?" Rumalia said. She continued walking again. "We needed help from evil itself."

Nabooru looked up at where they had arrived. Before them stood an incredibly massive mirror, from corner to corner of the wall. The light was rather dim, so the women could barely see themselves. But Nabooru felt a strange sense of dread as she saw her vague reflection. Disembodied voices fluttered throughout the chamber, whispering and giggling unintelligibly.

"Mirrors, Nabooru, are some of the most powerful sources of magic in this world," said Rumalia. "You could take the most well-mannered woman and have her look into this mirror, and see a cruel, heartless hag gazing back. Every source of good in this world has its mirrored opposite, and the only way to trap that opposite is in a mirrored world."

Rumalia paused, motioning for Nabooru to watch the mirror. Behind them stood a crumbling statue, similar to the one from the entrance hall. Suddenly, in the reflection, the statue began to move. Startled, Nabooru spun around to watch it. But to her surprise, it had remained lifeless.

"Watch," said Rumalia, turning her daughter to face the mirror again. In the reflection, the statue gradually mended itself, regaining the form of some kind of armored sentinel. The pieces of its body floated in midair as its stony eyes came to life, watching the women from within the mirror.

"Hello, Arbiter," said Rumalia with a joyless smile. Nabooru wanted to steal a look behind her, but she knew she wouldn't find anything.

The Arbiter's stone body cracked as he turned to look at Nabooru. When he finally spoke, nothing physical indicated it was indeed him. The voice was deep and ancient.

"You are frightened."

Nabooru swallowed, throat dry. She looked to her mother, who said nothing in reassurance. Nabooru cleared her throat. "You are frightening."

The Arbiter simply looked at her for a moment. "You are young."

"You are in a mirror."

Suddenly the voices swelled in giggles, and Nabooru hoped they reflected the Arbiter's emotions.

"And yet to me, you are the one in a mirror," said the reflected statue. "Rumalia, is it truly time for your retirement?"

"The day is approaching swiftly," said Rumalia. "Things are changing for the Gerudo. I hope this does not upset you, Arbiter."

The stone head, resembling that of a stern-faced warrior, turned to face Nabooru again. "You have many questions."

Nabooru's heart pounded. "I'm sorry?"

"Rumalia has not told you the full truth."

Rumalia stepped forward. "I did not want to overwhelm her."

"You are sentimental," said the Arbiter, but nothing revealed anger in his voice. "You are correct in saying that change is coming, and it will indeed affect the Gerudo. She should know the circumstances of her fated situation."

Nabooru clenched her fists. "Then tell me the full truth."

The Arbiter was silent for a moment, gazing at Nabooru with empty eyes. "You believe I am some terrible evil, do you not? You see me across a mirror and assume I am the ruler of an evil realm, controlling these spirits out of pity for your people. But tell me, what kind of evil spirit would display pity?"

Nabooru glanced at her mother, who looked a mixture of regretful and scared, if at least for her daughter.

"You are too young," she said quietly. "I never wanted this."

The Arbiter continued over her. "The Gerudo needed to enslave the spirits of the Desert in a realm of darkness. But the darkness would not accept them without a price, a sacrifice. The spirit of their king."

Nabooru gazed at the statue in shock. "What are you saying?"

"The Gerudo people, in order to banish the spirits they declared evil, sacrificed their king to the Void between realms," said the Arbiter. "But the darkness was a greedy house of tricksters, and with this sacrifice came a horrible curse. They unleashed unto the Gerudo the Curse of Kings."

"You were the king," said Nabooru in disbelief. "The curse that was cast by an evil witch…it was all our doing. We took over a land inhabited by spirits—"

"They were evil," said Rumalia. "They wouldn't coexist with our ancestors."

"That gives us no right to banish them," said Nabooru. "Let alone sentence our own king to an eternity of…"

"I protect this Desert from the spirits, eager to escape and wreak havoc on the Gerudo," said the Arbiter. "I guide the souls of those you condemn to the Void, for it is my duty to do as my people wish. But I am also aware that this truth is not an easy one. You have handled it well, and surely understand that if my existence is made known, there will only be pain."

Suddenly one of the statue's arms crumbled, falling to the ground. Nabooru jumped, brow furrowing, but Rumalia was the one to speak up. "What's happening?"

The Arbiter's voice came in some kind of double-tone, one normal and the other screaming in agony. "Change is coming… The darkness is screaming…"

Nabooru heard the millions of voices start chattering in hushed tones, filling the whole chamber with white noise.

The Arbiter continued, while sections of his stone body turned to dust. "Destiny returns to the land of Hyrule… The cycle continues… Darkness reawakens…"

"Arbiter!" Rumalia cried before the remaining pieces of statue disintegrated. The two women turned swiftly, only to find the once lifeless statue now a pile of dust.

"What happened?" Nabooru said, voice laden with fear.

"Something horrible is coming," said Rumalia, shaking uncontrollably as she gripped her daughter's arm. "The Arbiter is gone… We must get back to the city."

The two of them hurried outside of the prison, calling for the guards to ready their horses. On the ride across the Desert once more, Nabooru felt a large stone settle itself in her chest. She was breathing heavily, overcome with fear not only for her people, but for all of Hyrule.


	13. The Reawakening VII

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who has been reading, and especially reviewing! I'd like to thank Lord Darth Yoda for giving me the idea of the Spirit Temple, although I did tweak it a bit. I hope you all enjoy the last chapter of the Reawakening :P**

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><p>GANONDORF STOOD BEFORE the Spirit Temple, fists clenched in determination. The large stone sculpture, carved into the wall of the mountainous exterior of the temple, depicted the Goddess of Sand, also known as the Mother of the Gerudo. The prince didn't take much time to admire her, mainly because he saw the statue nearly every day during his training at the Fortress. Although the temple was many lengths away from the Fortress, a small oasis between the two, the colossal statue was large enough to be admired by the few sentries and warriors who worshipped the goddess.<p>

Ganondorf saw no beauty in a goddess that confined him to the Desert. He loved his home, but this goddess was already dying in the eyes of even her children, with only few real worshippers left. But the temple was still a significant place for the Gerudo, if more for tradition than anything else. The eager prince saw new opportunity in the sandy old temple, seeing as it now stood as his gateway to becoming king.

Now, only months after his time in Castle Town, Prince Ganondorf stood before the Spirit Temple entrance with nearly the entire Gerudo city surrounding him. Koume and Kotake stood directly behind, along with an attendant holding a folded, heavy black and red cape with a large golden circlet resting on top in her arms. The four of them stood on a platform before the temple, while the citizens of the Gerudo crowded around in eagerness.

Before Ganondorf stood a decorative table, on which sat a shield. Koume stepped forward in front of her son and lifted the shield. She held it up to her citizens revealing its mirrored surface with the Spirit sigil in the center.

"Today, I pass onto you all a new beacon of hope," she said, projecting her voice so that each citizen could hear. But only her sister and only true confidante heard the anxiety in her voice. "My son Ganondorf will be the first king we have seen in one hundred years!"

The crowd let out a cheer and Ganondorf smiled to himself. Koume walked back toward her son, lowering the shield. "In order to pass the test of the Goddess of Sand," she said, voice still raised, "you must return the Mirror Shield to its rightful place within the Spirit Temple." Ganondorf took the shield in his hands, Koume still holding it at the top. "Once the shield has been placed, you will be crowned King of the Gerudo. May the Goddesses light your way." She let go of the shield, and the citizens cheered. But Koume's smile was sad as she said to Ganondorf, voice lowered, "You are still young. And although I am glad to see you taking responsibility for your people, know that I will always be your worried mother."

Ganondorf chuckled, sandy breeze billowing his shoulder-length red hair. "I will be fine." He turned and raised the Mirror Shield above his head, eliciting a loud cheer of excitement from his people. And with that, he turned to face the temple. Two guards hauled the doors open and Ganondorf stepped inside confidently, the shield resting on his left arm.

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><p>At that moment, in a square in Castle Town in the district of Falden, a small human girl with dark features and a dirtied face walked up to a storefront. One of the shopkeepers, a young human with light skin and brown hair, was sweeping the porch of dust when he saw the girl. She was watching him with wide brown eyes, lingering around one of the wooden posts supporting the store's awning. The Hylian stopped mid-sweep, watching her with equally curious eyes.<p>

Eventually the girl's eyes went to the apples and Deku pears stacked beneath the window, each for five rupees. The shopkeeper hesitated before leaning his broom against the wall. "Would you like to buy some fruit?" he said. The girl didn't say anything, but stared between him and the fruit. "Would you like an apple?" The girl nodded, and the shopkeeper pointed to the sign. "It's five rupees."

When the girl didn't say anything the Hylian sighed. "I can't give one to you." She stared. "You'll take a lot for…your family…" He heard his own words and let out another sigh. "Okay, okay." He stole a glance in the shop's window before reaching over and grabbing an apple. He handed it to the girl. "Now go."

But the girl put the apple in a small bag she had and stayed where she was.

"I can't give you more," said the shopkeeper.

"Hey!"

The two of them looked up as the store owner stepped out of the entrance. She was a plump older Hylian, wearing an apron similar to the shopkeeper's. "What do you think you're doing?" She swatted aimlessly at the girl.

"Stop," said the shopkeeper. "She's just a girl, let her have an apple."

"That's not your apple to give away, son," said the woman. She grabbed the girl's bag, who let out a shrill cry of panic. The shopkeeper stepped in front of her, pushing her away from the girl.

"Leave her alone."

The store owner gave him a stern look. "You get your hands off me."

The shopkeeper clenched a fist, breathing heavily. Before he could think, he grabbed a handful of apples and put them in the girl's bag. "Go and take those to your family."

The woman let out a shout of anger before shoving the human into a wooden post as the girl scurried away. "I let you work for me, and this is how you thank me?"

The shopkeeper said nothing as a group of armored Hylian guards approached the shop. "Is everything okay?" asked one sturdy-looking man.

"This little snitch thinks it's all fine to hand my good produce to the homeless brats," said the Hylian woman.

"They're starving," said the human. "And isn't it remarkably interesting how none of them are Hylian?"

One of the guards grabbed the man's arm. "We'll take care of this."

"How is feeding a starving child wrong?" said an onlooker, who had stopped shopping when the guards arrived. He was Hylian.

"You a Dinerat too then?" spat one of the guards.

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><p>Ganondorf walked up the steps, lighting the torches with a snap of his fingers. The temple had been much longer and darker than he had anticipated, but he had finally made it. Before him, engraved into the stone wall, were the words:<p>

_Here the Mirror's frame shall lay_

_In light reflect the night and day_

_To seal the years of rulers past_

_And bring a new dawn to us at last._

Beneath the script was a carved out section of stone where the Mirror Shield seemed to fit perfectly. He lifted it from his arm and turned it so the reflective surface faced outward. As he pushed it into its place in the wall, he glanced at his reflection in the flickering torchlight. To his utter horror, the image he saw was not of himself, but of a dark snarling beast with red eyes and a flaming mane. Ganondorf stumbled backward in shock, nearly knocking over a torch stand. His chest began aching.

But he couldn't stop now. The Mirror Shield was in place. Besides, it was probably the dim lighting and mild dehydration getting to his head. He set his jaw in determination and turned to leave the temple.

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><p>In a blurred frenzy, Falden Square filled with people chanting various phrases at no one in particular. The shopkeeper had been rushed away by the guards, and more were sent to calm the unruly crowd. But they were outnumbered, seeing as Falden was one of the poorest districts in the city. The citizens, mostly humans and hybrids, had formed an impromptu protest, and a wall of Hylian guards barricaded their way to Hyrule Castle.<p>

The Hylian store owner fled. She no longer cared about a few apples. The crowds were getting dense and a few people had already been lost under their feet. Many non-Hylians left as soon as possible too, but they were only a fraction of the disgruntled citizens of Falden.

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><p>Ganondorf banged three times with his fist on the Spirit Temple's doors from within, tradition for the crowning ceremony. They were soon opened and the bright sunlight nearly blinded him. The ache in his chest had settled into a strange sort of pressure, not so painful, but not ignorable. He stepped into the rising daylight, hearing the joyful cheers of the Gerudo people.<p>

"Prince Ganondorf has placed the Mirror Shield!" cried Kotake, eliciting more cheers. Ganondorf's brow furrowed momentarily, wondering what would have stopped him from placing the shield on the floor of the entrance hall and waiting a few hours.

"I'm so proud of you," said Koume softly, holding her son's face in her hands. She kissed his forehead lovingly.

The crowd quieted as the palace's high priest, a tall woman with darker skin and hair, lifted the golden circlet from the attendant's arms. She stepped over to where Ganondorf now got on one knee, head bowed.

"Ganondorf," said the priest, "I, a Priest of the Goddess of Sand, officially crown you King of the Gerudo." She placed the circlet on his head, a bright red jewel dangling on top of his forehead. She backed away for the new king to stand.

Kotake, smiling widely, cried, "I present to you you're new King!"

The Gerudo people cheered immensely, clapping their hands in the air and jumping out of excitement. A king was so rare in the Valley that even the small children understood the weight of such a day.

Ganondorf smiled, watching his people applaud his success. The attendant unfolded the cape she had been holding and walked behind the King, fastening it to his torso piece. When she stepped away, he cast the cape behind his right shoulder and grinned.

"My people," he called happily, "I will not disappoint you!"

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><p>At that very moment, in the frazzled chaos of Falden Square amidst the line of Hylian guards, a human girl dropped dead.<p> 


	14. War and Corruption I

**A/N: Sorry for the two-week delay. With the holidays, and then January semester starting up, I had to take a little break from this. Also, I'm not sure where this chapter fits, but it definitely does somewhere in War and Corruption. So if y'all have any thoughts, let me know!**

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><p>SOJA WATCHED THE entire city of Gerudo citizens gather beneath the palace balcony, eager to hear the new king's announcement. Never in her life had she dreamed of holding such a high position that she'd be standing next to the king himself, wearing beautiful silk robes of red and gold. She had been born into a servant's life, the life of her mother and grandmother before her. Her life in the harem no longer bore the duties of a loyal servant, and being the first choice of King Ganondorf, she was usually spoiled with magnificent dresses and foreign delicacies. She was certainly not complaining, but she often thought of her mother still cooped up in the servant's quarters, washing the clothes worn by her now royally important daughter.<p>

Soja remembered the day she saw the king with her own eyes. She had been bringing Lady Koume's dirtied robes to the bath house near the marketplace as the desert sun drifted below the dune-covered horizon. As a newly enlisted servant of the palace she rarely got to walk through the bazaar, and she loved the way the stalls looked at sunset, casting a blanket of gold over the adobe buildings. But she would always remember the way Lord Ganondorf's skin gleamed in that setting sun, the way his stunning red hair turned to fire in the gilded light. And of course, she would remember his golden eyes looking directly at her for the first time.

It wasn't uncommon to see Ganondorf wandering the streets, especially with the Chief of Military. But on this day he was alone, and brandishing a pair of strange Hylian swords. A rumor had been fluttering throughout the city that he took them straight from Hyrule Castle's armory, possibly without the smith's permission. A few young women had been returning from a day at the Fortress; they were clearly well-off, since higher class citizens generally had the funds to maintain a beautiful apartment within the city, instead of the free lodgings within the Fortress itself. The two women were laughing and waving their curved swords at each other, boasting their higher levels of warrior training. Sentries did not have swords, but spears.

When they saw the new king striding through the streets, they shut their mouths and sheathed their swords hurriedly. Soja, safe behind a mound of unwashed cloth, watched as Ganondorf's expression went from idle to mischievous.

"Warriors?" he said as he approached the women. A few heads turned at his passing.

"In training, milord," said one woman with straight hair that fell to her waist even tied up by a leather strip.

"Perfect." He drew one of the straight-edged longswords in his right hand, a grin about his lips. Although Soja and the rest of the middle class workers knew of Lord Ganondorf's reputation for informality among his people, she felt slight sympathy for the trainees whose expressions revealed the slightest hint of immense fear. Something was inexplicably unsettling about his demeanor, and Soja found herself staring in fascination.

The women glanced at each other in apprehension, and Ganondorf laughed. "Do you enjoy it?" he said, eyeing them curiously. Soja remembered seeing a hint of something else in the way he looked at them: too much hunger in the gaze of a twenty-year-old toward women in their thirties most likely. Soja herself was twenty that day.

"I enjoy serving my people," said the other woman, who had noticeably more Hylian features than her companion.

Ganondorf laughed again, shaking his head. "You've surpassed sentry training and it wasn't enough." He summoned the first trainee's sword from its sheath, using magic like he had been born with the ability to manipulate it. The woman's eyebrows went up as her sword floated through the air and into his empty left hand. "Clearly there's something about it that captivates your interest."

As the king admired the scimitar, the women seemed to relax. Soja watched as the first watched as she unsubtly eyed him in curiosity. "I like swordplay," she said.

Ganondorf grinned at her. "As do I." He spun the longsword in his right hand idly. "There's something elegant about our style of fighting."

"If I may, my king," said the second woman, "why do you have a Hylian longsword?"

Ganondorf lifted both swords in the air in front of them, encouraging her to examine them. "As elegant as the curved blades are," he said, "there's something much more powerful in the straight steel of a longsword."

Soja couldn't seem to help herself. Her mouth just opened in a response, saying, "I would argue that the true power lies in the wielder, no?"

She tensed as Ganondorf looked at her. She had completely stopped doing anything save for watching the scene unravel. And what really drew her in was how she itched to pick up one of those swords. Even though she'd been a loyal servant of the palace for as long as she'd been able to lift buckets of water, she spent most of her free time with swords.

Ganondorf smirked at Soja for a good moment before taking the first woman's scimitar over to where Soja stood in terror. His approach was slow, and although she was fairly concerned with how he would react, she felt her skin burn as she looked at him, and shivers curled down her spine.

"Come here, girl," he said.

Soja did not meet the king's eye as she walked around the stall's counter. Her heart pounded as she turned to finally look at him.

"What would a lowly servant know about sword fighting?" said Ganondorf curiously. His eyes seemed to scrutinize every single breath that Soja took.

"My mother gave me a practice sword, milord," said Soja quietly. "Said my father left it here before leaving the Valley. I've been practicing with it."

"Ever used a real sword?" said Ganondorf.

"Yes, milord. Several times. But I couldn't be a sentry, let alone a warrior. It's not in my blood."

"But if you're passionate about it…" Ganondorf twirled the scimitar in his hand before holding it out to her.

Soja swallowed a lump in her throat before laughing nervously. "Oh, no, milord, I couldn't—"

"Take it," said the king.

Carefully, Soja reached out and took the sword from the king's hand. As their fingers graced each other's, she felt her whole body increase in temperature.

"Let's see what you've got," said Ganondorf with a sly smile.

Soja shook her head. "I don't think…"

But Ganondorf was already backing up, relinquishing the heavy robes from around his shoulders and leaving his chest bare. He held his sword outward toward his opponent, left hand behind his back in a respectful bow. "By all means," he said, skin gilded gold from the setting sun, "show me what true power is."

As expected, Lord Ganondorf had parried and countered his way into a victory with his straight-edged blade. With a small laugh from the other sentries and the king himself, she was dismissed to finish her chore of clothes-washing.

The next day however, Soja received a knock on her door. She opened to see a well-dressed messenger of the palace court standing before her.

"Soja Diramine," said the messenger, voice rather dainty and soft. Gold makeup adorned her face. "Lord Ganondorf requests your presence tonight."

Soja hadn't quite known how to react, or even act in such a situation with the king. She had never before been with a man or a woman, and she certainly never considered herself as lovely as some of the other women in the palace.

The messenger, whose name was Niame, led Soja through the palace corridors until they reached a small dressing room on a higher floor. Inside were beautiful clothes Soja had only ever washed, and mirrors with large palettes of makeup before them. There was a small bath in one corner, with a curtain to shield it from view.

Soja was left to wash by herself, which she had never done in such luxury before. The sweet scents of cactus and Deku flowers filled the whole room as she cleansed herself in the hot water. Once she had finished, she wrapped her body in a smooth robe and Niame reentered.

"I'll be helping you dress," she said, and Soja was grateful for the aid. She had no idea how to make herself look presentable for the king.

After an hour or so of trying-on and discarding dresses, Soja found herself in a deep maroon dress with multiple strands of golden jewelry dangling from her neck, wrists, and ears. Niame coated her whole face in powdery makeup, sprinkling gold dust onto her cheeks and across her bosom. Finally, she pulled a sprig of vanilla from a small pouch and gave it to Soja.

"Place this down your dress and you'll be smelling wonderful all evening," she said with a small smile.

After another trip down the halls of the palace, Niame left Soja outside of the king's chamber. The servant girl took a deep breath, heart pounding in an array of emotions. She eventually lifted her hand and knocked lightly on the door.

"Come in."

Opening the door quietly, Soja stepped inside. The room was dark, dimly lit by a few candles by the king's rather large bed. She saw him standing by the window, chest bare, and expression rather unreadable. But once he saw her, a smile adorned his lips. Soja was rather certain that in that moment, she had fallen in love with him.

Now, as she stood beside him on the balcony nearly a month later, she could feel every woman's eyes on her. She still didn't know what made the king want her above everyone else, but she was in no place to question his authority.

"People of Gerudo Valley," called Ganondorf once the citizens had quieted, "What happened to the lore of our ancestors? What happened to the pride we once had in our own mythologies? I say we bring the myth of Ganon to life once more, and celebrate his mighty deeds for the Desert People with a glorious feast." After a pregnant pause, he said, "Thus, I have a new decree. On the seventh day of Din's Harvest, we shall celebrate the Day of the Beast."

The people below the balcony raised their voices in agreement.

"The palace cooks will be preparing a wonderful dinner for the whole city," said Ganondorf, "but we will need your help. If we are to collect adequate resources to provide everyone with enough food, you all must contribute. Trade caravans will be sent to Castle Town to gather supplies. If anyone would like to volunteer to join the route, please speak to a palace attendant waiting before the courtyard. Thank you all, and have a wonderful Day of the Beast!"

With a cheer from his people, Lord Ganondorf turned and entered the palace. Soja caught a long look from the Chief of Military, Nabooru, before they followed suit.

During the following days, while preparations for the feast were made, Soja returned to some of her normal duties out in the desert crops. She and a group of other girls from the harem gathered cactus fruits and insects, along with decorative materials like feathers and amber stones. Some of the sentries were sent out to hunt for leevers, plantlike creatures that dwelled beneath the sand's surface and made wonderful dishes. While toiling in the sandy crop fields, many of the other women prodded Soja with questions.

"You must feel incredibly special," said one. "Does he ever talk to you, or is it all business?"

After a few giggles from the others, Soja shrugged. "He doesn't say much," she said. "I'm not really that special. He often sends me off when he's had enough."

"But you've been with him every night for a month," said another woman. "That's special in my book."

But the truth was, the king was much more secretive than Soja would have liked. She found herself waiting eagerly every night for his call, and often wondered if just one night he'd let her stay with him. But each time he tossed her away to sleep by himself. She knew she shouldn't be expecting much, but her heart broke a little every time she left his spacious chambers to return to the harem quarters.

The night before the Day of the Beast, as King Ganondorf rained kisses down her neck after finishing his business, Soja found herself drifting off. She awoke what must have been hours later since the sky was already paling with early sunlight, and she sat up quickly. Ganondorf had been awake already, back against the wooden headboard as he gazed out the window.

"I'm so sorry, milord," said Soja with a nervous laugh. She rushed to get out of bed. "I must have fallen asleep."

"It's okay," said the king quietly. He gave her a joyless smile. "You may stay."

Confused and yet happy, Soja crawled back beneath the covers. Hesitantly, she let her head fall on his shoulder. He did nothing to stop her as he turned back to the window.

At least an hour passed and Soja couldn't fall back asleep. She was about to get up and return to her own chambers anyway when she witnessed something she never thought would happen. Lord Ganondorf revealed his thoughts.

"I wasn't supposed to be this way," he said quietly, not looking at Soja. Another moment passed, and she dared not speak. "I was supposed to bring prosperity to my people."

"You will" Soja breathed. "You will make the best leader in all of Gerudo history."

Ganondorf looked at her, face expressionless. His words however were not. "What do you know?" he said, voice sounding somewhat sinister. "You know nothing about me. You're a lowly servant girl."

Soja swallowed, sitting up. "I'm sorry, milord, I didn't mean to—"

"Get out."

And with that, she got out of bed and wrapped a robe around her naked body. She left his room hurriedly, tears staining her cheeks.


	15. War and Corruption II

**A/N: Since I missed a week and then was late, here's an early update. YAY RHYMES. Also, I realized what was wrong, being that I have the Darunia chapter far too early in the story. I removed it for later, and made this the second chapter of W&C. Enjoy!**

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><p><em>One year earlier...<em>

LORD GANONDORF, THE Chief is here to see you," said the lone guard by the door.

"Let her in."

The throne room, as it was so regally called, was once full of Gerudo guards and tables topped with books and platters of food. The former Princess Koume had seen to it that the guards confined within the palace walls would never lack in comfort, providing them with cushioned chairs and basins of clean water. Lord Ganondorf held the same upkeep of the chamber for a while, although he did take to replacing the guards with prettily-dressed women from his not-so-secret harem. However, within the past few weeks, the King had taken to stripping the room of its former color and liveliness. It was now mostly barren, save for the weaponry adorning the walls and the red curtains falling from the ceiling all the way to the floor. And of course, he did not do away with the throne itself, ornate structure of gold and red positioned directly in the middle of the far end of the chamber. Three shallow steps led up to it, and a newly-placed crimson carpet rolled directly up to his feet. He sat straightly in the glorified chair, waiting patiently as Nabooru walked down the length of the room to a couple of paces before where he sat.

"My Lord," said the Chief of Military, getting to one knee and bowing her head low. Her sleek red hair was pulled back by a jeweled hair clip, and gold pigment shadowed her eyelids. The chamber doors' closing echoed throughout the stone room.

"What is it?" Lord Ganondorf said patiently.

Nabooru looked up but did not stand. "I have something of great importance to discuss with you, concerning the Gorons."

"Then discuss," said Lord Ganondorf.

"A unit of Goron soldiers has requested encampment within our borders," said Nabooru. She finally got to her feet. "I figured it would be best to come to you before making such an impactful decision."

Nabooru was right; allowing troops of the Dinerats to station themselves within Gerudo territory meant declaring a side. It wasn't a light decision, especially considering how heavily the Adventaries seemed to long for Gerudo assistance. General Vincent of Erudone, promoted recently to direct the Adventary army, had sent many messages with meeting proposals on declaring alliance with his forces, but Lord Ganondorf had ignored all of them. No such requests had come from the Dinerats, but the Gerudo King still had no opinion on which side deserved victory.

"May I make a suggestion?" said Nabooru, breaking Lord Ganondorf from his thoughts. There was a strange air of hesitancy, and a hint of distress about her. The King nodded. "This war will make it to our gates sooner or later. If we have no stance on the matter, both sides will view our territory as vacant. We could be expecting massive invasions from either one to claim our land."

"We will defend our territory, if it comes to that," said Lord Ganondorf.

"One Gerudo army against the entire forces of Hyrule?" said Nabooru. "We'd be conquered in no time."

"Perhaps we need a way to ensure victory," said the King, glaring at Nabooru with piercing gold eyes.

Nabooru's breath was coming more heavily as her hands curled into fists at her sides. "I don't know what you mean," she said, "but perhaps if you set aside your ego for one moment—"

"Perhaps I should find a new Chief of Military who knows how to hold her tongue," said Lord Ganondorf.

Nabooru's whole body seemed to deflate as a crestfallen expression covered her face. She turned her head down for a moment before looking back up at the man she once called a friend. "You've changed."

"I am a king, Nabooru," said Lord Ganondorf, voice lowering slightly. "I won't tolerate the disrespect of my subordinates."

"I wasn't trying to be disrespectful," said Nabooru. "But I've spent enough time with you to make me hope you might…" Her unspoken words fell into the ground like heavy stones as she watched the king's expression soften, only for a brief moment.

Eventually, Lord Ganondorf spoke again with a stern yet comprehending tone. "Your duty is to your king. I cannot let you speak to me like we are primary school playmates anymore."

Nabooru felt a hollow tightening in her chest and sting of tears that have yet to brim her eyelids. She swallowed her grief and nodded curtly, waiting for her king to dismiss her.

"I will send a message of my decision in the morning," said Lord Ganondorf, sitting back in his throne. "You may go."

As the Chief of Military turned and walked down the chamber floor's narrow carpet, Lord Ganondorf watched her closely. Something emptied out his chest with every step she took, and he closed his eyes with a slight sigh. The double doors closed with a soft boom.

_Your sentiment could be your downfall, Ganondorf_. The voice seemed to fill the entire room as the Gerudo opened his eyes. He couldn't physically see the strange entity, but he felt its presence within his mind's eye.

"She will not be a problem," said the king to the distilled air around him.

_I am aware,_ said Ganon. _In fact, I am sure of it. _Ganondorf didn't need to express his concern, mainly due to the fact that this entity had made its home inside his mind. _She is a threat to your rise in power._

"I already am in power," said Ganondorf. "How could she be a threat?"

_You do not see the bigger picture, my son. You have the Gerudo within your grasp, sure enough. But you are a king, a gift given once every century. You have so much greatness held within you—show the entirety of Hyrule that greatness._

Ganondorf narrowed his eyes, watching the double doors. "What's in it for you?"

The voice laughed deeply within his head. _I chose you for a reason, didn't I? _said Ganon. _Imagine all I could teach you, all I could _show _you if I could stand right beside your throne._

"Nothing would change," Ganondorf remarked. Another laugh from the voice.

_All right. Then with corporeal form, I will give you the one thing you've wanted from the moment you were crowned King. I will leave you. _Ganondorf's eyes widened slightly. _I will leave you to your own thoughts, never to speak with you again._

Ganondorf took a deep breath, the whole room losing focus for a moment. "How would 'showing the entirety of Hyrule my greatness' give you corporeal form?" he said quietly.

_The power of belief is strong in our world,_ said Ganon. _You get everyone in Hyrule to believe in me, and my power will manifest once again. Spread your grasp of leadership to all corners of the land and teach people the ways of Gerudo tradition and mythology. Let me into their homes and their thoughts…and you will be free of my presence._

As soon as the entity stopped speaking, the doors to the throne room opened slowly. A messenger had come to inform him of some meal with some important person, but Lord Ganondorf's thoughts were on any possible way to rid his mind of the ceaseless torment of another's presence. He answered the messenger absently and stood to leave the room.

_There is more, concerning your sentiment_. Ganondorf paused his gait, looking at the red carpet with concern. _The first step in this enterprise lies within your precious little city. You must kill the girl._

Ganondorf said nothing, for fear of the messenger thinking him mad. He straightened the clasp of his cape on his shoulder and strode confidently out of the throne room.

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><p>The next morning Lord Ganondorf sent word to the Fortress concerning the Goron troops. He had spoken with his advisors, Mothers Koume and Kotake, and they came to an agreement that would be most beneficial to the Gerudo people. Working their way through Hylian royalty to gain more recognition would be in their favor; the Gorons were not to set up camp in their territory.<p>

As soon as the messenger was sent through the door of the war room, Lord Ganondorf turned to his parents. They were still so beautiful even in their daily garbs intended for work around the palace. The king placed his palms on the edge of the table where a map of Hyrule had been placed, much like in the tactics room of Hyrule Castle. He looked at Koume and Kotake inquisitively.

"I've been thinking about a promotion for you two," he said, breaking the silence that followed the door's closing.

"Promotion?" said Koume. "We're your advisors. Can we get any higher in rank?"

"I suppose it's not a promotion of rank, but of more significance to our newfound position in the war." Lord Ganondorf picked up a gold pennant by the side of the map, the color of the Adventaries. "I need eyes and ears that I can trust. That I have plenty of faith in to do a good job." He struck the pennant through the Gerudo Fortress on the map. "My idea was to have you two, a pair of very talented sorcerers, act as my private, personal scouts."

"Scouts?" echoed Kotake, a bit of annoyance in her expression. "How is that a promotion?"

"I said it was different from a rank promotion," said Lord Ganondorf. "And I know that with your powers over magic, you can find out secrets that none of the other scouts can. And there are discreet ways of transportation through the world. We are masters of stealth, being Gerudo."

Koume was biting her lip, and Lord Ganondorf feared they wouldn't accept the offer. He asked them to wait in the war room while he went to fetch a book from the library only a few lengths down the corridor. When he returned, he had it opened to a spell in his hands.

"The Flight of the Green Goddess," he said, placing the book on the table beside the map. The twins peered over it, curiously reading the somewhat complicated recipe. "It can grant any inanimate object the ability of flight, so it can carry you to your destination."

"And what do you expect us to do with this?" Kotake said, looking up at him. "Fly all over Hyrule atop a pair of…of brooms? To collect information and bring it back to you?"

"It doesn't have to be brooms," Lord Ganondorf said with slight aggravation in his tone. "But this, on top of the stealth spells in your repertoire, will make perfect spies of you both."

"Spies…" Koume was fiddling with a golden piece of jewelry dangling from her pointed ear. "It doesn't sound so bad, you know."

Kotake's expression was unreadable, as if she were thinking rather hard about the whole situation. Eventually she sighed. "All right. I suppose it will work. Who do you plan on appointing as your new advisor to replace us?"

Lord Ganondorf smiled at her acceptance. "I was thinking of having Nabooru be the new advisor, since she already has great skill in strategic planning as the Chief of Military."

Suddenly Ganondorf's chest throbbed with an intense, sharp pain. He clutched it with his right hand, flinching backward as if something had hit him. Nothing else happened, no voice in his head, but the message was clear. _I don't care what you think_, he thought.

Koume asked if he was all right, and he shrugged it off. "We should find a way to get this spell working," he said. "I want you in the field as soon as possible."

Kotake was reading through the spell when she spoke up, "Ganondorf, this spell is supposed to be for master sorcerers. It takes a massive amount of energy to cast it even once." She looked up at the king doubtfully. "I don't know if we'll be able to make it work."

"You are both fantastic sorcerers," said Lord Ganondorf. "If anyone can cast this spell successfully, it's you." He picked up another gold pennant from the side. "Besides, I need to gather information in a timely fashion, and the only way to do that is via flight. Our first little task will be to seek out the Gorons in the north who do not follow the rebellious Dinerats. We know there are a few, so your job is to figure out who they are and where. Maybe they can help us."

Koume and Kotake nodded, watching their king as he pinned the small flag right next to the red one below Death Mountain.


	16. War and Corruption III

**A/N: For those of you catching up, I realize my last addition was a little confusingly updated. I deleted a chapter and then posted one, so it looked like nothing had changed at all. So if this chapter doesn't make sense to you, go back and read the previous one. (: Enjoy!**

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><p>WHEN WORD EVENTUALLY reached Castle Town that the Gerudo would be joining forces with the Adventaries, General Vincent of Erudone himself made a swift journey to the Desert. Lord Ganondorf was not at all surprised when he and a group of Hylian soldiers arrived at the city gates, and he gathered together a small council of Koume, Kotake, and Nabooru to meet in a moderately sized hall on the first floor of the palace. It had once served as a place for dining, but Lord Ganondorf had changed its purpose shortly after war was declared on the Hylians. Koume and Kotake stood vigilantly to the Gerudo King's right, while Nabooru hovered to his left. She and Lord Ganondorf had barely spoken since he dismissed her not long ago, and her eyes coolly watched the opposite wall.<p>

When General Vincent eventually marched into the meeting hall, he outstretched his arms in what could have only been empty jubilance, a wide grin on his face.

"My favorite Desert people!" he said, steel armor clinking as he walked through the grand entrance. His silent and emotionless soldiers followed, raising their helmet guards above their eyes. "You have no idea how overjoyed I was to hear of your assistance in this dreary war." Lord Ganondorf could hear the excitement in his contradictory words.

"Our lineage is mostly of Hylian descent," said Lord Ganondorf. "Perhaps it is time we work together."

General Vincent walked right past the king and kissed Koume and Kotake each on the cheek. He turned to Nabooru, smirking slightly. "And who might this be?"

"This is Nabooru, my military advisor as well as Chief in command to our soldiers," said Lord Ganondorf.

"_Very_ pleased to meet you," said General Vincent, taking Nabooru's hand and kissing it rather deliberately. Nabooru watched him with an idle smile and waited for him to return his attention to Lord Ganondorf.

"Have you come with specific matters to discuss?" said the king.

"Oh, come now," said General Vincent. "Am I not a visitor in your honorable home? Why don't we sit awhile, get to know each other. We are, after all, allies against our savage-like adversaries."

Lord Ganondorf raised his eyebrows. He smiled slightly at the eccentricity the general exhibited. "Very well. I can have a servant bring tea."

"Why so serious?" laughed General Vincent. "You there, girl, bring us the finest Gerudo wine in your cellar!"

The servant who had been standing vacantly in the corner of the room sprung to action as soon as the general spoke. She was soon back with a bottle of wine made of the cactus fruit found in the Desert and a whole tray of goblets. They all sat around the long table, the Gerudo on one side and General Vincent on the other by himself. His guards stood behind him in a haphazard semi-circle.

"Now," said the general after taking a long swig of wine and placing his goblet on the table. "I'm sure you have certain qualifications to explain, given your hesitancy on joining forces in the first place."

"That is correct," said Lord Ganondorf. He allowed the servant to pour him a goblet of wine but hadn't yet touched it. "It should be no secret to you that the Gerudo have always been treated…concerning within Castle Town's walls." The general nodded apologetically. "Do not think we will become great friends just because we fight for the same cause."

"And what cause is that?" General Vincent said. His eyes glittered in the light shining in from the arched windows, and Lord Ganondorf's narrowed at the prospect of being tested like this.

Nonetheless, he answered, "A unified Hyrule."

General Vincent nodded. "Under one king. I trust you've taken that aspect into consideration."

"It has crossed my mind, yes," said Lord Ganondorf. "And I hope you will find my qualifications acceptable. We are not fighting with the Adventaries for your High King, nor for your venerated goddess as the name of the alliance implies. We are simply fighting for unification."

"You do realize that by fighting for unification, you fight for King Daltus," said the general. He crossed his legs beneath the table, leaning back in his chair. "When we win this war, he will become your king."

Lord Ganondorf narrowed his eyes slightly, watching General Vincent's nonchalant posturing carefully. "I suppose that is necessary, yes. But I hope I can maintain the level of authority I currently have over my people."

"Sure, sure," said General Vincent, waving his hand in the air as if this were an obvious matter. "King Daltus would not downgrade your position in any way, save for the title. It's the same with all the other provinces of Hyrule. Chief Darunia will remain leader of the Gorons, King Zora De Bon the hundredth will still be leader of the Zoras. But you can't be a king under a king."

Lord Ganondorf ignored the general's obvious disrespect for the Zora King's lineage and nodded. "I can agree with that. But will the Gorons and Zoras maintain authority, even if they have so blatantly rebelled against King Daltus?"

"The High King has made it clear that no grudges will be held following the war," said the general a little disapprovingly. "He plans on keeping things peaceful between everyone. I guess that's what a unified Hyrule means, anyway." Suddenly General Vincent leaned forward, voice lowering as if to tell a big secret. "I think it has something to do with the rumor that's been going around Castle Town."

"What rumor is that?"

"The Queen is pregnant." General Vincent raised his eyebrows, a giddy smile on his face.

Ganondorf felt something push against his chest from the inside, as if something were trying to get out. It was a feeling he'd grown familiar with, and he made no outer indication of anything wrong. "Pregnant?"

"Indeed," said the general. "I happen to know that it's fact rather than rumor. And they've had doctors and apothecaries and alchemists of all kinds in to determine the baby's sex. They think it'll be a girl." He leaned back in his chair again. "Of course, it's not too significant. There have been plenty of princesses who were not the goddess's reincarnation, but it's always exciting to think about."

The pressure in Ganondorf's chest seemed to tighten. He made a mental note to ask Ganon about it later.

"Anyway, peace between the provinces will certainly make for a more unified Hyrule," continued General Vincent. "We just need to think of something to put the rebels in their place."

Lord Ganondorf nodded. "So I will still be in command of Gerudo Valley," he said. "Are there any conditions I need to take into account?"

"A general tax will be implemented," said the general. "Of course, for the betterment of Hyrule."

Lord Ganondorf smirked. He wasn't born yesterday, and General Vincent knew it. But neither of them said anymore on the topic.

The rest of the meeting was rather light, with no serious discussions about hard war tactics. Lord Ganondorf mentioned his plan to creep in on Death Mountain, and General Vincent nodded dismissively to his proposition. "We'll have it all in due time," was all he said. "But for now I think this session is ended. My men and I have been travelling for days and I think we deserve a long rest, don't you?" He drained his second glass of wine and stood, turning to his men to mumble something about how they should relax a little.

"There are guest rooms on the second floor," said Lord Ganondorf. "I can have a servant bring you there."

As the Hylians left the meeting hall following a petite Gerudo girl, Koume turned to her son. "That man is quite an odd fellow."

"I don't like him" said Kotake. "I never did."

"We have to get along with him," said Nabooru quietly. "He's the highest rank in the Hylian army. If we're to fight on the same side, we're to become acquaintances at least."

"He is right in that the discussion has ended though," said Kotake. "It's off to a nice warm bath for me." She and her sister exited the hall.

Lord Ganondorf looked at Nabooru after motioning for another servant to take the goblets and straighten the chairs. She left with the tray. Nabooru returned his gaze.

_No one is looking_, said a very faint voice inside Ganondorf's head. _It is the perfect time to strike._

"Death Mountain, then?" said Nabooru.

"The Gorons are easily the most…emotional opponent," said Ganondorf. "There are already many cracks within their people."

_Kill her._

"I thought I was supposed to be your new advisor," said the girl. The corners of her lips turned up ever so slightly.

"You are," said Ganondorf, returning the semi-smirk. "I was planning on telling you."

_Kill her._

"Do you have a plan?" she asked.

Ganondorf's was beginning to set with each word the entity within his mind spoke. "We might have some information regarding the status of Goron City," he said. _Kill her_. "It's still a young settlement, and the mountain had inhabitants before they came to Hyrule."

"You mean Kakariko?"

_Kill her_. Ganondorf's voice was clouding over with frustration. "No, Kakariko is at the base of the mountain. I think the previous mountain dwellers are"—_Kill her._ Ganondorf paused. "Somewhat extinct."

"How is that useful information?" said Nabooru.

_Kill her._

"Enough!" Ganondorf slammed his fist against the hard wooden table, feeling it splinter beneath him. He glared at the fracture with wide eyes, anger flaring his nostrils. Eventually he looked back up at Nabooru, who had taken a step back with widened eyes as well. "I'm sorry."

But Nabooru only stared at him for another moment, sad expression deepening, before she turned and left the hall.

That night Ganondorf did not want to spend alone. He ate a small meal with his parents in a private dining chamber (the Hylians were perfectly understanding and ate in a larger hall with many curious upper class Gerudo who had their sights set on bearing children), then he made his way up the stairs to his personal chambers. He called for a servant to send a woman to his room that night, any woman from the harem who would come. He waited by the window. "I will not kill her."

_You are weak._

"I am not weak."

_You allow your emotions to get in the way of your great conquest._

"Not my great conquest. _Your_ great conquest," said Ganondorf, brow furrowing as he stared at the moon glowing over the sandy horizon. "I will not kill her."

_If you will not kill her,_ said Ganon calmly, _then I cannot gain corporeal form._

Ganondorf rolled his eyes, sitting on the wide stone window sill and propping an arm across his knee. "I thought all I had to do to give you corporeal form was get all of Hyrule to believe in you. What does killing Nabooru have to do with any of it?"

_It is a test of your strength. If you cannot complete the task, then you are ill fit for the task ahead of you. You and I will be bound together forever._

Ganondorf stood, taking a few steps around the window, before letting out frustrated yell and slamming his fist against the stone wall. He pulled it back slowly, staring in shock at the crumbled stone.

_You are already unaware of your incredible, physical strength_, said Ganon. _Now you must match it with mental strength._

"Shut up!" Ganondorf shouted, bending over and clutching his chest. "Leave me alone!"

_Kill the girl, and you are one step closer to ridding yourself of me._

"I won't do it!" he yelled, hands raking through his lengthening red hair. "You cannot make me!"

Just at that moment, a beautiful woman opened the door to his bed chamber, a confused and mildly frightened expression on her face. "My lord?" she peeped, slipping in quietly. "Are you all right?"

Ganondorf let out an incredible roar of fury and lunged his open palm at the girl. A thick, deep purple ball of energy had begun forming in it, and as soon as his palm faced her, it released with an immense crackling sound, like lightning. The girl didn't make a sound, save for the dull thud of a lifeless body hitting the floor.

The air around Ganondorf felt dense and electrified, and the hair on the back of his neck prickled upward. He was breathing heavily as he watched the girl's slumped body, hoping beyond all reason that she would get up. After what felt like a never-ending, breathless second, Ganondorf walked over to her slowly and turned her body over in his arms.

Her dead eyes were paralyzed open, and purple-black lines covered her skin like veins. Ganondorf dropped her in horror, getting to his feet as his hands shook violently.

"I killed her…" he whispered.

He heard nothing from the being within him, save for a deeply malicious chuckle.


	17. War and Corruption IV

THE CASTLE ATTENDANT found Lord Ganondorf one morning, four months after the visit from General Vincent of Erudone, lying bloody and still in his bed. She let out a shrill cry of fear and panic, lamenting the king's murder, until she horrifyingly saw his head lift from his pillow, brow furrowed above annoyed eyes. It was only then that she saw the simple dagger in his own right hand, spattered with the dark blood, almost purple in the dim light, from his chest.

Once he'd been cleaned up and his wounds dressed, he sat in a remarkably small room with a single table and a few chairs, Koume pacing back and forth in front of him. The worried look that only a mother can achieve was plastered to her face.

"I simply don't understand," she muttered for the hundredth time.

Lord Ganondorf was looking at the far wall despondently, as he had throughout the whole morning. He said nothing in response for the hundredth time.

"You are the king now, Ganon," she said, turning to look at him. Her whole body seemed to sag, as if her skin would fall off her face at any moment.

"Do not call me that," said Lord Ganondorf quietly.

Koume stopped pacing, seemingly not hearing what he'd said. "You asked for this. You became king far earlier than any ruler in Gerudo history. You are a gift sent from the Golden Goddesses, a chance to give our people the respect and longevity we deserve."

"Actually, I am a curse," said Lord Ganondorf. He looked up at his mother lazily.

"You are not a curse," she said. "My sister and I are doing everything in our power to help realize your goal for prosperity. The Flight of the Green Goddess is already taking its toll on our bodies." She held out her arms in example, which were also sagging. "That spell sucks the energy out of even the most powerful sorcerers. But we do it because we love you, and we believe in you to better our people."

"You don't understand," said Lord Ganondorf suddenly. "Our people do not need betterment. We are already so strong and powerful that the Adventaries practically begged us to join their forces. We do need respect. This whole country needs to learn what respect is."

Koume paused, sensing the unusual hint of bitterness in her son's voice. She knelt down in front of him, only slightly below his eye line. "We can teach them respect," she said. "But you need to be alive to do so."

Eventually, a small smile perked Lord Ganondorf's lips. He kissed his mother on the forehead, beside the ruby jewel, and stood. "I believe we have some secret matters to discuss."

They met with Kotake in the war room, where she stood gazing over the map of Hyrule. Her body was just as wearied as her sister's, only her skin seemed to carry a blue pallor with it. They got right to business.

"We've discovered the Dinerat leader, although he calls himself the organizer to emphasize a lack of rulership," said Kotake. "He's a round-ear, goes by Link most likely as a way to rally the troops."

"He can't be the Hero of Time if he's not Hylian," said Koume.

"It's probably not his real name," said Kotake.

"Not a very good one," said Koume. "The mere existence of the Hero of Time shows an acknowledgement and a belief in the Divine Cycle they are rebelling against."

"It could be a statement," said Lord Ganondorf, "that the Hero could be anyone."

"That would make Hylia's reincarnation anyone as well," said Koume thoughtfully.

"Anyway, his name is of little importance," said Kotake. "We found him upon visiting, surreptitiously, the little town beneath Death Mountain, Kakariko Village."

"Isn't that the Sheikah town?" said Lord Ganondorf.

"It is. But the villagers didn't seem to have any idea this man was the organizer behind the rebellion."

"And what of the Sheikah?"

"They cannot be found so easily," said Koume. "They are probably the only clan of people with more knowledge of stealth magic than the Gerudo."

"I can only imagine they are fighting on behalf of the Royal Family," said Kotake. "They have been loyal servants for as long as Hyrule has been in existence."

"This Link must be a cunning man," said Lord Ganondorf, more to himself than his mothers. "We'll need to double that cunning."

"What do you propose we do?" said Kotake.

"We should pay a visit to Castle Town," said the king. "Besides, I hear the Queen is with child." He grinned, gold eyes twinkling in the torchlight. "I can only imagine we'll be receiving a viewing invitation, as honorable allies in the war."

"That's months from now," said Koume. "The organizer could have moved positions by then."

"I don't think so," said Lord Ganondorf. "There is a reason he's waiting in Kakariko, and I believe it's the same reason we will be visiting Castle Town in a few short months."

Just as the small, secret committee was about to disperse, Kotake held up a hand. "We found something else by the foot of the mountain." She reached into a pouch fastened to her sash. She placed a greenish-yellow scale on the table between them and the king. "That's all we could uncover while in hiding."

Lord Ganondorf picked up the scale and held it up to the torchlight, watching as it glinted with hints of blue. "Any idea where it could have originated?"

"I haven't seen anything like it," said Koume. "It's nothing like a dodongo scale."

"Did you hear anything about it from the Gorons?" said Lord Ganondorf.

Kotake nodded. "Apparently whatever they are have been plaguing the Gorons for years now. We couldn't get a name from them. Perhaps they are natives of Goronia as well."

Lord Ganondorf eyed the scale, which covered a majority of the palm of his hand. "We'll keep an eye open. Whatever this is could be deadly to either side of this war."

A couple days later, Lord Ganondorf was sitting at a large wooden table in the palace with a number of books splayed before him. It was already past sunset and the torchlight was minimal at best. A candle stand rested on the table, shedding a little more light.

He wasn't even sure what he was looking for; he only wanted some kind of confirmation that the entity inside his head was a non-negotiable presence. It was beginning to dawn on him that, regardless of Ganon's claiming to be his father of sorts, this being was not looking out for the Gerudo's best interests. He peeled through the pages of a Desert Mythology book, reading mostly about the legendary dragon Lanayru and how the region was once a vast ocean connecting two very distant lands. Eventually he came across a section titled "Gerudo Mythology" and stopped flipping the pages. The very first myth was that of Ganon and the Beast.

This version was a bit different than how he remembered it, however. This time, instead of the Beast devouring Ganon, the Gerudo warrior killed it after much struggle. But to his dismay, he found himself gradually becoming the Beast over time. Eventually, out of honor and to protect his people, he drifted away into the Desert to become the thing he was always destined to be: a horrible, callously murdering Beast.

Ganondorf was about the close the book when it flipped to a page concerning the land before the Desert. He briefly saw that there was another myth, a deep one that survived only through heresy against the Royal Family, that seemed to originate in the lush land that was once the dragon Lanayru's territory. Ganondorf saw a drawing of a mask that looked rather plain, colorless from the drawing, and looking much like a regular human face. There were ancient markings around the border of the drawing, like some kind of language spoken only by an ancient people. But before he had time to read anything about it, there was a knock at the door. Nabooru came in quietly, closing the door behind her.

"You should be at the Fortress," said Lord Ganondorf without looking up at her.

Nabooru stood by the end of the table, looking at him closely. "Tell me what's wrong."

Ganondorf looked up, eyes glazed slightly with candlelight. "Nothing's wrong."

Nabooru smiled. "You act like everything's changed, like I don't know you at all. You're forgetting that we used to be like brother and sister."

"That's not how I'd put it," said Ganondorf with a smile.

Nabooru pulled out the chair next to him and sat. "Tell me what's wrong."

Ganondorf looked down at the book with a slight sigh. "I don't think I can."

"Why?" said Nabooru.

"You could get hurt."

Nabooru watched his golden eyes while they watched the flickering flame of the candle. They seemed so much deeper than anyone else's she'd seen, and she thought it best to not press him.

"You should leave," said Lord Ganondorf suddenly, leaning back in his chair. "It's late to be travelling to the Fortress."

"I need to tell you something," said Nabooru, ignoring him. "I know I shouldn't, but…"

Ganondorf looked at her, expression unreadable. It was as if something had grasped his attention from within, and it was intrigued by her secret.

"There had been a secret, passed down from Chief to Chief for years," continued Nabooru. "Have you heard of the Arbiter?" When Ganondorf nodded, mentioning the old cautionary tale he knew, she glanced at the candle apprehensively. "He was the spirit who protected the Arbiter's Grounds. He kept the evil within from breaking out into our realm."

"Was?" Ganondorf said.

"When my mother took me to see him, something terrible happened." Nabooru's eyes clouded over from the memory as she recounted her experience with the Arbiter. All the while, Ganondorf's back seemed to straighten with intensity.

"Darkness reawakens…" he mumbled. "What do you think it means?"

"It could be the war that tears Hyrule apart," said Nabooru. "But it feels like something far greater. The Arbiter is gone now, and I fear the evil spirits will try to take over our land."

Ganondorf seemed to be shaking now as he placed his face in his hands.

"Are you okay?" said Nabooru.

"You should go," was all he said. She gave him one last worried look before getting up and leaving the room.

_That was your final chance, and you have declined my request,_ said Ganon. Ganondorf stood, gripping the edge of the table fiercely.

"I will not hurt her," he said through bared teeth, gazing intently at the fire. "Do what you want to me, I don't care. But if she is hurt, I will have my revenge."

_Fine,_ said Ganon nonchalantly. _But there are consequences to your defiance._

"I don't care."

_If you will not give me life outside your body, then yours will have to do._

Ganondorf lifted a hand to clutch his face which was contorted from pain in his head and chest. His fingernails dug into the skin, and he pulled his hand away to see light spots of blood on his fingertips. He stared at them silently for a while, before saying quietly, "Fine," before closing the books on the table and blowing out the candle.


	18. War and CorruptionV

**A/N: Kinda long, but that's okay I hope. WHO'S EXCITED FOR MAJORA'S MASK 3D?**

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><p>IMPA FELT THE entirety of Castle Town holding its breath as she rode her white horse through the streets. The Hylians who seemed to be huddled in their homes cast anxious glances out as she passed, wondering what her presence meant. But the heavy air of potential rebellion was not Impa's concern at this moment. She made her way for Hyrule Castle once more.<p>

As soon as she dismounted at the large double doors, a Hylian guard rushed her inside. They strode through hallway after hallway, up several flights of stairs, until they came upon a large bed chamber with a faint crying coming from within. The guard smiled, unable to control his excitement at hearing the new princess's small cries, but Impa was far more disciplined. She waited for the guard to announce her before walking inside, hands clasped behind her back.

"Impa, so glad you could come," came the voice of Rauru, whose hair had begun to dull with age. He smiled, gesturing for her to come closer to the bed. The Queen, a petite woman with smooth brown hair and green eyes, was sitting up beneath the covers, a small bundle in her arms. Beside the bed stood King Daltus, the happily weathered look of a sleepless father on his face.

"It is an honor, Your Highness," said Impa, bowing at the waist before the Queen. "I trust you know why I am here."

"Impa," said the Queen with a warm chuckle. "You are here for the same reason why a Sheikah was called to my cradle. I do hope I can get a better announcement than my mother before me, however." Her smile was purely content as she looked down at the mewling babe in her arms.

"May I?" said Impa, holding her arms out.

"Of course." The Queen handed the baby to her midwife, who brought her over to Impa delicately. The Sheikah took her as gingerly as she could possibly comprehend, straightening her shoulders and looking albeit rather uncomfortable with an infant in her strong arms. But as she watched the thing squirm restlessly, soft face content save for the occasional grunt of discomfort, Impa's rigid shoulders relaxed. In place of a motherly smile, her brow furrowed and her eyes seemed to gloss over. The baby's hair was a pale brown and she seemed to weigh nothing, as if she were made of light itself. Impa saw a faint glow, one that only a Sheikah could see, coming from the tiny Hylian's heart.

"Well?" said Rauru, clasping his hands together with a hopeful smile. "Any verdict?"

Impa watched the child for another moment, taking deep breaths. Never in her already-long lifetime had she imagined witnessing such an extraordinary event. And now that it had happened, she needed to practice more self-control than she thought she had.

Eventually she turned her somewhat worried expression to the Queen. "I would request a place to stay in the Castle, if not somewhere nearby in Castle Town," she said. "This child needs unflinching and constant protection."

The Queen's face flashed with joy. "Does that mean…?" She shared a look with the King.

"Nothing can be known for certain," said Impa, handing the princess back to the midwife. "But I would caution against excitement. Forces of the universe are at work that might prove harmful if prodded with an iron fire stoker."

After a confused moment, the King laughed. "I won't let any harm befall my lovely daughter, as I'm sure you would agree. We'll have a room prepared for your indefinite stay."

Impa nodded. "Thank you, Your Highness." And with that she turned sharply and exited the room, Rauru close behind.

"Is it true?" Rauru said in a hurried whisper, jogging to keep with the Sheikah's swift gait. "Is the princess truly Hylia's reincarnation?"

"As I said to the King and Queen," said Impa, "I cannot know for sure."

"But clearly you feel _something_," said Rauru. "Why else would you be staying in the Castle?"

Impa stopped, turning a passive look on Rauru. "Because if you haven't noticed, the people of Castle Town are under an impressive amount of pressure and fear. While the Royal Family is rejoicing the birth of a new princess, they forget that she is a big motivator to the Dinerats to further act against the Hylians."

Rauru gazed up at Impa with an incredulous look. "You are Sheikah," he said simply. "It is in your name and birthright to stand by and protect the Royal Family at all costs."

"And I will do so until the day I leave this realm," said Impa. "I only suggest that things remain a little less jubilant while the innocent civilians of Castle Town are still immensely frightened for their lives."

Rauru shook his head. "This is no longer about rebellion," he said. "The reincarnation of Hylia can only mean one thing."

"I am aware," said Impa. "Which only heightens my fear for Hyrule's innocent inhabitants."

She turned again to continue down the hall, hands clasped behind her back.

* * *

><p>Lord Ganondorf dismounted Wrana, leaving her in the hands of the young Hylian man who ran the Castle Town stables. He and his parents were in town after receiving word of the new princess's birth, and they were invited to attend the Announcement Viewing. It was of no surprise or speculation that the princess's name, after her mother and grandmother before her, was Zelda.<p>

Lord Ganondorf had little interest in the princess herself; he had mainly made the trip to Castle Town to speak with General Vincent of Erudone about the Dinerat leader, Link, hiding out in Kakariko Village. He also had the sneaking suspicion that this Link would be in town for the sole purpose of disrupting any celebrations to commemorate the birth of another female heir.

Leaving his mothers to travel through Castle Town on their own (save for the three or so Gerudo guards to protect them), Lord Ganondorf walked purposefully down the wide, cobbled street of the main marketplace. The Goddess Fountain was up ahead, a small monument of foreshadowing to the grandiose castle behind it. Ganondorf turned left and made his way straight to a disproportionately small stall a couple lengths down from the fountain. It was the royal blacksmith's marketplace forge, where an old acquaintance was waiting.

"Goddesses, is that who I think it is?" said Sir Cedric, putting the hammer in his right hand back down on the anvil. "Lord Ganondorf, King of Thieves."

Lord Ganondorf let a chuckle escape his lips. The false title didn't bother him as much as it had other members of the royal Gerudo family tree. "How are you, Cedric?" he said, reaching an arm out across the counter.

Cedric took his hand and shook strongly. "Quite good actually." He was grinning madly. "I've recently become a father."

"Does the Queen have some explaining to do?" said Ganondorf, and the two of them laughed.

"Good Nayru, no," said Cedric between chortles of laughter. "No, although my wife does indeed have as much beauty as the Queen, the royal princess is not my daughter. I have a son."

"Congratulations," said Lord Ganondorf.

"Thank you." Sir Cedric turned his head and glanced at the weaponry on display all around the stall. "I take it you're not here for another special order?"

"No. As King of the Gerudo and ally to the Adventaries, I was invited to princess's official announcement viewing."

"I figured as much," said Cedric. "Although now that I'm seeing you in person, I'd like to thank you for all of your business in the past years. It's nice to provide a service for people outside the Royal Family."

Lord Ganondorf smiled, shaking his head. "Not at all," he said. "You're weaponry has proved more useful and effective than anything the Gerudo smiths could make. Although I'm sure it has much to do with resources."

Cedric nodded. "Yes, I am provided with the strongest of Hylian steel."

Lord Ganondorf paused, golden eyes not leaving the Hylian's face. "I do have a request, actually."

"What would that be?"

"Ganon's Swords."

Sir Cedric's brow furrowed slightly above scrutinizing eyes as he regarded the Gerudo King. "What do you mean, 'Ganon's Swords?'" he said.

"The ones you made for the scholar, in the armory," said Ganondorf.

"I can't just give them to you," said Cedric in astonishment. "They're not really for practical use anyway."

"You can make them useable, can you not?" Lord Ganondorf pressed his palms against the stall's countertop. "I need them."

Something in Cedric's expression glassed over as he watched the Gerudo's face. The features had hardened and his golden eyes had become alight with a fiery ambition. Cedric shook his head gently. "No," he said.

After a brief moment where Ganondorf seriously considered threatening the blacksmith, he eventually straightened his back and the fire in his eyes extinguished itself. He smiled emptily. "Fine," he said. "Not a problem. I'll just commission a pair of my own then."

But Cedric had taken a step back and deeper beneath the stall's ventilated roof. "I don't think I can make you any more weapons."

Another tense moment passed and Lord Ganondorf's expression turned to stone. He realized he would not be getting any help from this Hylian, this turncoat. He wanted to try and convince him, but he was filled with the reasonable fear that anything more out of his mouth would lead to his imprisonment. Curtly and acutely, the Gerudo King turned on his hell and walked away from the forge.

* * *

><p>That night Impa sat on a wooden barstool within a tavern by the Castle Town marketplace. She had entertained the possibility of staying permanently in the heart of Hyrule on her way to the city, but now that it was happening she needed a drink. Being a tribe of secrets that lurk within the shadows, she knew she would never be able to see her family again. The new princess presented a conflict for Impa she never thought she'd have to deal with. She downed a large portion of ale that had been placed on the counter before her.<p>

"You look familiar," said the barkeep, leaning against the counter and gazing at Impa with absently analyzing eyes. "You one of those Desert People?"

Impa looked up at him. "I am not Gerudo, no," she said. "I am Sheikah."

The barkeep's brown bushy eyebrows nearly rose to his hairline. "Out in the open, huh? I guess there's a first for everything."

Impa didn't reply for a moment, taking another long swig of ale. Then she looked at the Hylian again. "Why did you mention the Gerudo?"

The man shrugged. "You got dark skin."

"Plenty of people have dark skin," said Impa. "Why them specifically?"

"Guess it's because they came to town today," he said. "Damn thieves."

"Why are they in town?"

"How should I know?" The man turned to help another customer.

Impa cast a surveying glance around the patrons of the tavern. Most of them were light-skinned Hylians, a few round-eared humans, but no Gerudo. She turned back to her drink, looking down at the metal tankard thoughtfully. Within moments her mind was no longer in the present, but back nearly thirty years ago not long before her Shadow Initiation. It was a rite of passage nearly all Sheikah experienced when they came of age to practice the ancient shadow magic of their ancestors. It was also a time when, as is warranted for seekers of the truth, the young initiates learned nearly every secret unknown to most of the world. Impa remembered standing in awe as she heard those secrets, many, many years before her initiation.

"What if the people of Hyrule were to discover the truth?" said an initiate who had just gone through the ceremony. A young Impa watched from the shadows, already naturally proficient with its magic.

"They will not," said the Sheikah who had been training the initiate. Unlike all the other Sheikah, she had deep crimson colored hair. "These secrets must never leave your mouth."

Impa couldn't sleep that night, all of Hyrule's most damning truths swirling around in her head. She wondered why the Sheikah so immovably served the Royal Family, regardless of everything they had put into their people's heads to promote their precious system. Regardless of the whole reason behind adding a tear to the Sheikah Eye of Truth so long ago. Regardless of everything her Sheikah ancestors had witnessed.

Impa was lurched out of her reverie by a shrill scream from outside the tavern. She stood quickly and silently, turning to assess the situation. The whole tavern had grown quiet, gazing out the windows. Suddenly someone ran up the street, a bloodied sword in his hands.

Impa cast her cloak around her body and whisked herself into the shadows. It was a lot like a simple invisibility spell, but the Sheikah magic made it as if she didn't even exist anymore, able to will passage through people and objects without detection as long as she was not in direct light. She snuck across the tavern floor and outside, where she remained in the shade of the building. Up the street, the armed man had climbed atop the marketplace fountain, standing atop the Hylia statue's head with his sword raised in the air. He cried something into the air before a whole legion of armored rebels emerged from the various nooks and crannies of the city. With a hive-like hum of violence, they began to raid the marketplace.

Impa leaped from the shadows and sprinted as lightly as a breeze into the mayhem. She hurled herself into the air and landed on the fountain's edge, pulling a metal shuriken from her boot. She lanced it at the rebel with perfect aim, slicing his neck so discreetly that a look of confusion covered his face before he fell back into the shallow fountain water. Without sparing another breath, Impa dashed straight for the centerpiece of the mayhem. Farther down the marketplace's cobblestoned road was a nicely fashioned stall with a miniature forge under its roof. It belonged to Sir Cedric of the Royal District, the formal blacksmith of the Castle.

Impa knocked out another rebel by kicking the back of his knees and slamming her fist into the back of his head before turning to look inside the blacksmith's stall. It was dark, without any fire in the forge, and she hurdled over the counter to conceal herself in the shadows.

She was about to move through the back, sneaking around the battle to get to its most valued combatants, when she heard a voice hissing in what she knew very well as betrayal. Invisible to everyone within, Impa snuck through the doorway to see a wounded Hylian clutching his chest and leaning against the wall, and a tall, sturdily-built Gerudo man who could only be the widely-known King of Thieves, Lord Ganondorf Dragmire.

"Had I know…" said Sir Cedric, voice wet and shaky with struggle.

The Gerudo King chuckled deeply, and Impa saw blood shimmering on the long blade he observed. "You and me both, Cedric." His golden eyes were fiery, alight with an ambition Impa had never seen before in a man's eyes. "I'll send word to your estate."

"And just what will you say?" croaked Sir Cedric, collapsing to the dusty floor.

"That I fought off the rebel who killed you," said Lord Ganondorf. His voice lowered. "All you had to do was let me into the armory."

"And where would that have led?" said Sir Cedric.

"A swifter end to this battle," said Lord Ganondorf.

Sir Cedric laughed with the last of his strength. "And what then for you, Lord Ganondorf?"

With that, the Hylian blacksmith let go of his chest and lay still on the ground, eyes glazed over with lifelessness.

Impa hadn't moved at all as she watched the scene play out. To her horror, the Gerudo King seemed to look directly at her regardless of her concealment within the shadows of the room. Finally the man turned, throwing his black-and-red cape over his shoulder, and left the blacksmith's market stall.


	19. Unification I

**A/N: Sorry for not updating last week. It was partly because Majora's Mask had come out and I was playing vigorously, but it's also due to the fact that this civil war is kind of killing me a bit (pun intended). I'm not entirely sure where to go with it :U Hopefully it'll come to me.**

* * *

><p>ERUDONE WAS A rather large district toward the northern side of Castle Town, where the inhabitants were made up entirely of Hylians. All fair-skinned, all pointy-eared—it was rather taboo for Hylians from Erudone to marry outside of the pureblood heritage and stay in their home district. Many Hylians who were less conservative moved anyway, but there were always the select few who resented the amount of outsiders who had migrated to the city. They stayed within Erudone's walled borough, rarely venturing outside.<p>

General Vincent was somewhere in between: he wasn't quite as resentful for the other inhabitants of Hyrule swarming Castle Town, but he certainly wasn't about to let any Gorons or Zoras take over the country. Hyrule was a land designated by Her Grace for her children; that didn't make Gorons or Zoras or Deku or any of the other minor factions within the country not as significant. But Hyrule belonged to the Hylians, and if they didn't like it, they could leave to any of the other neighboring countries.

Vincent himself came from a family that was once very close to the Royal Family. But as the years went on and as Hyrule's borders expanded, the family became one of the many that served the King and Queen. Vincent's great-grandfather went on the expedition that discovered the desert far off to the west. His family had always felt a strange sort of fondness for the Desert People because of this fact—the Hylian settlement had been forged by their discovery.

But Vincent's thoughts were not on the Gerudo this morning as he rode down the dirt path leading from Lon Lon Ranch to Kakariko Village. He had spoken only minutes before with the ranch's owner, Talon, about a request from the Adventary army. Vincent remembered how Talon sat at the small wooden table within the ranch house, drumming the tabletop with his stubby fingers, large bulbous nose dipping up and down as he nodded at the general's words. The quiver in the man's mustache told Vincent that he was not so sure about the proposal.

"So you're sayin'," Talon said after Vincent had finished speaking, "you wanna have soldiers here?"

"It would be incredibly helpful," said General Vincent. "If the Adventaries are able to station units here, it would provide a safe checkpoint without making them travel all the way back to Castle Town's barracks between missions." He flashed a false friendly smile at the stout man. "It would also assure King Daltus that you are in support of his cause."

Talon never really met Vincent's eye as he continued drumming the table. Something about all of it—about war—pleased the Hylian general. He didn't know if it was his family's war-hero-studded history or not, but the conflict invigorated him. Sometimes people had to die in order for a resolution to be made. Even if he were to answer to the Golden Goddesses one day for his transgressions, he would not regret it.

Talon eventually shifted in his wooden chair and adjusted his blue overalls. "I suppose lettin' a few soldiers stay here wouldn't be bad."

The small meeting having gone over smoothly, General Vincent swiftly mounted his horse—he had also made a deal with Talon to provide the Adventaries with horses in exchange for large sums of rupees—and made his way to Kakariko. He now galloped up to the insignificant gates of the small mountainside village to see it rather bustling.

"A Hylian soldier?" someone croaked from right inside the wooden, rectangular arch. "What's your place in Kakariko?"

Vincent dismounted and held his horse's reigns, looking around at the busy village full of people of all races. The Hylians that were there didn't seem to mind as much as those of Erudone would have. He looked to the man who had spoken, a short man with a bald head and white mustache. His ears were pointed.

"What's your business?" he said again.

"I come on behalf of Castle Town," said the general. "Is there someone I can speak to? The mayor, perhaps?"

"You're speakin' to him," the man said. "Now what's your business here?"

Vincent stole another glance around Kakariko. The place had always been associated with the Sheikah, a town for them to call home. But it seemed as if it had been hijacked by anyone and everyone who wanted to live there. He certainly didn't expect a Hylian to be mayor.

"Could we speak somewhere more private?" said Vincent. "Do you have an office?"

The man grunted before turning and heading forward into the village. Vincent followed, leading his horse through the crowd carefully. Someone came up to him and offered to take it, but he dismissed them. He'd rather have the horse tied up outside the mayor's office, where he knew he could find it.

Kakariko was encased by mountains—Death Mountain to the north and the valleys before the forest to the south and east, past the graveyard. It simply didn't have room for expansion, and Castle Town was too close in vicinity for it to bleed into the Field. The mayor led General Vincent up the hilly terrain of the village until they reached a cottage-like building not far from the large windmill that gave the tiny town its name.

Inside, the mayor sat down at the normal-looking table; in fact, the "office" appeared to be nothing more than a small room for storage. It was somewhat disconcerting. Vincent didn't sit down with him.

"Actually, I was hoping to meet with the Sheikah," he said.

"The Sheikah?" The mayor let out a hoarse guffaw of laughter that made it seem like some large, angry goose were squawking at him. "The Sheikah don't live in villages and towns like us folk. Maybe if you Castle Town high-and-mighty citizens spared a moment of your lives to visit, you'd see that."

General Vincent stood with his back as straight as it could possibly go. He stared down at the short man sitting in front of him. "Where can I find one?" he said.

The mayor was still chuckling, and eventually it lead to a cough that didn't cease for several minutes. "You wanna find a Sheikah to talk to, go back to your castle."

Vincent sighed. He hadn't particularly wanted to speak directly to Impa—the stern woman didn't come off as easy-to-talk-to. Certainly not as easy as it was talking to the insubstantial ranch owner. He also hadn't planned on the trip to Kakariko going so…unexpectedly.

"I can see I'm not welcome here," said Vincent. He leaned over the table and stared directly into the mayor's watery brown eyes. "But from what I see here in Kakariko Village, things will not bode well for you."

The man snorted. "Make your threats, castle man. Kakariko will take no part in the deaths of hundreds."

Vincent held the mayor's gaze for another long moment, and it dawned on him. This man was no mayor. This closet was no office. The Kakariko villagers were hiding something, and everyone was in on it.

Turning swiftly, the general left the squat little cottage and untied his horse. He mounted right there and rode through the village, watching with no remorse as the people scrambled to get out of his way. From atop the highest point in the small town, Vincent saw a pair of blue eyes staring him down. They belonged to a young round-eared man with light brown hair, dressed in green. The image made Vincent sick as he rode straight through Kakariko, across Hyrule Field, and back to Castle Town.

* * *

><p>Impa was sitting in her own private study when General Vincent knocked at the door. She closed her book, a green, leather-bound tome with golden letters on the spine, and told the knocker to come in. When she saw the general, her red eyes revealed no knowable expression.<p>

"Lady Impa," said Vincent, nodding respectably as he stepped inside. "How are you?"

"Fine," said Impa. "What is it you want?"

Vincent, always so fond of his ability to charm the ladies, felt like a cold fish under the gaze of the Sheikah woman. But he did his best to stand as confidently as he could. "I was hoping to have a word with you concerning your people, and Kakariko Village."

Impa placed the book on the table beside her, and Vincent saw the words "Book of Mudora" on the cover. He wasn't sure what it was, but it didn't look like light reading. "Have a seat."

Vincent sat down on a cushioned chair across the table from Impa. He had taken off his armor upon reentrance to the city and was wearing a simple blue tunic. It was rare that he was seen around the castle in commoner's clothes.

"I visited Kakariko today," said the general. "Things seemed…a little out of control, if I'm honest."

"How so?" said Impa.

"I suppose it was always my impression that Kakariko was a village of Sheikah," said Vincent.

Impa tilted her head slightly in thought. "It is a home to the Sheikah," she said, "but not as you might think of the word."

"Either way," said Vincent, "it was cluttered with people from all over Hyrule. It almost seemed like a refuge for civilians, but there have been no battles yet to create any refugees."

"Preemptive, maybe," Impa said.

"Perhaps, but something told me everyone there had no intention of unifying Hyrule."

Impa didn't respond for a while. Finally, she said, "What does this have to do with the Sheikah?"

"I suppose it doesn't," the general said with a shrug, leaning his elbows on the table. "I'm only concerned due to Kakariko's proximity to Castle Town. If they're harboring any of our adversaries, we might have to be careful about who we let inside our walls from the village." He paused, regarding Impa carefully. She sat straight as an arrow in her cushioned chair, as if she experienced no comfort from the circumstance.

"Now about the Sheikah," Vincent continued, "well, you have already shown your worth in battle against the Dinerat rebels. And being the only ambassador we have to your people, I hope you plan on recruiting them for aid in this war."

"As it is our birthright," said Impa, red eyes emotionless, "the Sheikah will protect and fight for the Royal Family at all costs."

"Good," said Vincent, leaning back again. "We can't have our most trusted allies turning away from us now." His eyes sparkled in the flickering candlelight. "What can you tell me about them?"

"About who?"

"The Sheikah."

Impa's brow twitched in the slightest hint of confusion. "I'm not sure I follow, General."

"You're such a secretive people," Vincent said. "As evidenced by your lack of a proper home. How exactly can you protect the King and his family? I mean, clearly you are an experienced and skilled fighter, but you are supposedly one of many. Are we expected to blindly believe you will aid us?"

"As we blindly aid you, I suppose you are," said Impa. "But to give you more information, I can say that every member of our tribe is trained for combat, starting a very early age. By Hylian standards, we start our training as children."

Vincent nodded. "That's good to hear. When will we be able to meet our allies?"

"We only make ourselves known when we are needed, General," said Impa. "We are, after all, a people of shadow."

"That might need to change, Impa. Civil war is nothing to trifle with."

"I'm fully aware, _General_," said Impa. Her tone revealed a trace of annoyance, but it only made Vincent smirk. If he couldn't charm this woman any way he chose, getting the stoic Sheikah irritated would be a good replacement.

"I didn't mean to offend," he said, holding his hands up with an apologetic smile. "I only want to make sure you understand the direness of our situation, especially with Kakariko potentially inhabited by Dinerat spies." He stood, straightening his tunic with a few short pats. "I'll leave you to your reading. Sorry to interrupt."

"Not at all," said Impa, watching as he turned to leave the room.

"Oh, one more thing," said the general, halting to look back at her. "Could I ask you something secret?"

Impa regarded him curiously.

"I was wondering," he continued, "perhaps you could tell me about the princess." He mustered up as much charisma as he could and poured it all into his light-colored eyes. "Is she our Princess in Gold?"

Impa's face was set as stone as she looked at Vincent, but he could sense her wanting to tell him. It seemed as if even the Queen didn't know whether or not her child was the true reincarnation of Zelda, but Impa _had_ to know. It was one of the reasons the Royal Family called a Sheikah to their side when a princess was born.

"The princess," the Sheikah said finally, voice quiet and laden with some unknowable knowledge, "is Zelda reincarnate." And then something happened that Vincent was sure hadn't occurred before in the Sheikah woman's lifetime: she smiled a pure, genuine smile. "Our Goddess has returned."

**A/N: Vincent rolled a nat 20 for his charisma check.**


	20. Unification II

**A/N: So this is super short, mainly because I'm starting to hate where this is going. I talked to a friend about it and kind of ENTIRELY shifted how I want this war to go, which would involve a good amount of alterations to the previous chapters. I also realized just badly written this whole thing is, and I kind of want to go back and just start over. I'm not usually opposed to "starting over," but I'm afraid it'll have a bad side effect here on FF. Like I'll lose some of my readers since people won't want to reread or anything. Not that it would be rereading. I dunno. I don't like this very much. **

**BUT I thought I owed it to those who've been reading. Thank you so much for the support to those who've been reviewing! I don't know if I'll be updating this weekly anymore.**

THE OFFICIAL VIEWING of the new princess had been more or less cancelled due to the rebellion, furthermore referred to as the Castle Town Rebellion. After witnessing Lord Ganondorf's sinister attack, Impa made no attempt to battle anymore, to follow the Gerudo on his mission; she made her way straight for the castle. Things seemed to be taking a turn, and her first and forefront priority was the newborn princess. When she made it to the nursery, she saw Rauru inside, holding her tightly to his golden-yellow robes.

"Impa!" he said, rocking the baby slowly so that she did not wake.

"The city…" Impa said, unsure of how to find her voice. "Dinerat rebels have attacked."

Rauru nodded in acknowledgement, saying he had come to protect the newborn. When Impa asked where the King and Queen were, he said he wasn't sure. He had gone, just like Impa, straight to Zelda's nursery.

When the fighting had finally ended, Impa exited the castle. Leaving the princess in the good hands of Rauru, who was an incredibly experienced Light magic healer, she saddled her silvery-white horse to leave for Kakariko. She'd heard about Kakariko's subtle takeover not long before General Vincent of Erudone came to speak to her about the Sheikah. The strange figure in green, a round-ear. The sorcerer sisters of the Gerudo had spotted him, discovered his name, and the information had been passed invisibly through the shadows, all the way across the desert and Hyrule Field to Impa's quarters within the castle. She'd seen the note sitting on her bedside table, the Eye of Truth insignia drawn in red ink on the thick paper. Notes—that was her only form of communication with the people she called family.

"The rebel leader, Link, is in Kakariko," the note read. Impa had stared long and hard at the name, at both names. "Link" was no coincidence—it was a name carefully hand-selected to make a point, to provoke a response from the Adventaries. But Kakariko… The little village was founded by and once harbored the Sheikah during a time of need in Hyrule, intended as a safe haven for those escaping oppression by the terrors that plagued the land. And now, people were using it as a haven _against_ the people the Sheikah had sworn to protect ages ago. Impa needed to speak to the people in Kakariko, preferably this rebel-leader Link. And being Sheikah, she had ways of finding him.

So Impa mounted her horse and left Castle Town through the eastern gate, heading straight for the mountainside village to the northeast. She still wasn't used to traversing Hyrule on horseback, especially when travelling to Kakariko. But being sent to protect the Royal Family, she simply didn't have the luxury of hiding in the shadows anymore. Might as well get used to the travelling habits required of non-Sheikah humans.

Night had fallen over Hyrule by the time Impa caught a glimpse of Kakariko. As counter-intuitive as it seemed to anyone who knew little about the Sheikah, night was not their strongest suit. The powerful tribe thrived on shadows cast by sunlight; when there was no sunlight to cast any shadows, their magic was weakened. Even so, Sheikah were stealthy by nature, and could still easily avoid detection in the poor eyesight of a non-Sheikah.

Impa dismounted swiftly and silently and tied her horse to a tree a good distance from Kakariko. She snuck quickly over to the town's entrance and easily scaled the natural rock wall, averting the watchful—yet tired—eyes of two indistinct guards. From atop the rocks, Impa squinted her red eyes; although the Sheikah did not thrive without the sun, their eyesight did not discriminate between shadow and the night's darkness. She gazed around the village, unusually crammed with tents and campfires belonging to the Castle Town Rebellion refugees. She focused her inner eye, the Eye of Truth all Sheikah were born with. She searched for the soul of the round-ear who seemed to be leading this rebellion, leading the Dinerats in their conquest against unification.

Something pulsed from deep beneath the ground, right in the center of the village. Impa centered her focus on the well, the deep channel leading directly into Din's red earth. How appropriate for the leader of the Dinerats.

But Impa began to move down the interior wall upon realizing the impact of Link's presence at the bottom of the well. It had been created solely for the purpose of extinguishing any fires caused by the towering volcano overhead, but the Sheikah had also used it as a kind of home during a temporary crisis involving mishaps within the Royal Family's security. At the bottom of the well they created a temple of shadows, and forged there with the magic of Impa's ancestors was a tool intended for a world without Sheikah. Her ancestors could see the truth of the future and promptly purged the ability from their magical repertoire so that no other generations had to witness such events and tumultuous possibility. But they still saw the future of a world without Sheikah, and the information could not be unlearned. Thus this tool was created.

The well was flooded again, meant to seal the tool away along with the bodies of the Sheikah elders who clouded their ability to see the future. But they did not leave without parting words of premonition: when a human of non-Sheikah heritage would remove the tool from within the temple, the Sheikah would be in danger.

Impa skirted the sleeping civilians with the swift intensity of a rabbit running from a fox and stopped abruptly before the well, peering down. It had indeed been purged of water, a low flickering light came from within. Panic searing through her chest, she descended down the metal bars that served as a ladder, folding her hood up above her head to shield her white-blonde hair from view.

Her attempts at remaining invisible were in vain however, and the second she turned to face the tunnel that led deeper into the temple, she saw a tall round-ear standing in the torchlight, staring at her with vivid blue eyes. His tunic was green with Hylian words embroidered in gold around the hems. Impa did not have time to read them before the man stepped up to her, blue eyes flickering gold in the dim light.

Impa couldn't speak. She had planned an entire interrogation for this rebel, who she'd imagined to find lying unwittingly in a bed somewhere in Kakariko's residencies. But here he was, looking at her with a somewhat incredulous humor, and she couldn't speak. Eventually the man chuckled lightly and looked down at the item in his hands. Impa followed his gaze and saw what looked like a purple magnifying glass, a red, slitted eye in the middle.

"The Lens of Truth," said the man, admiring it as he passed it between his hands delicately. "To tell the truth"—he paused, grinning at the joke—"I expected something a lot more… significant." He lifted the lens up and down in one hand, as if weighing it, with an expression of mediocrity on his face.

"Link," said Impa. She wanted to say more, to accuse this heretic of everything he was doing to the innocent people of Hyrule, but he was laughing and shaking his head.

"I'm going to take a wild guess," he said, "and say that you're Impa."

Impa felt the fiery heat of rage boiling from inside her chest, but her face did not even twitch. "What are you doing with the Lens of Truth?"

"I'm going to use it to see the truth," said Link. "I thought that was fairly obvious."

"It doesn't belong to you," Impa said simply, red eyes never leaving his own blue ones. He had it down to the tee, she thought. This man _looked_ like the hero of legend. His dark blond hair was cut in the way depicted on the tapestries within Hyrule Castle, his tunic was the same pattern, and a long hat of green dangled behind his head, mimicking the Minish tribe that inhabited the land centuries ago.

"Does it really belong to anyone?" Link said, eyebrows raising to meet his blond bangs.

"Enough," Impa said sternly, stepping forward so that her face was inches from the rebel's. "Clearly your intentions behind using the Lens of Truth are questionable."

"Questionable?" Link said, eyes glimmering with the fierce determination of a young warrior. "How could my intentions—which are unknown to you, by the way—be more questionable than Daltus' intentions on a 'unified' Hyrule?"

Impa's eyes narrowed, the only real expression she was capable of showing. "A unified Hyrule is beneficial to all its inhabitants."

"Funny how most of its inhabitants disagree," Link said. He slipped the Lens of Truth into a brown leather pouch and nodded to Impa as if concluding a meeting. He moved to walk past her, back up the well's ladder, when she whipped an arm out to stop him.

"How did you drain the well?" she asked.

Link blinked down at Impa's arm, then smirked at her. "The Dinerats have the Zoras on their side," he said. "As well as plenty of able-bodied sorcerers."

Impa seethed beneath her stolid expression, mostly at herself for not being able to ask the right questions while in the presence of the enemy. Of course the Dinerats had sorcerers and Zoras. But her grip on Link did not relax.

"You have a lot to answer for, boy," she said.

But then she let go. Link regarded her with shielded blue eyes, and she could not read them. She was still Sheikah though, and as the human turned to climb up the well's ladder she swiped her hand out silently and grabbed the small satchel with the Lens of Truth in it from his pouch. He unwittingly climbed to the top.

Before Link could realize what she'd done, she picked up at full speed into the inner depths of the well—into the remains of the Shadow Temple.


	21. REVAMP

**Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I'm in the process of re-writing this story, and have begun to really flesh it out with a beta-reader. I'm really enjoying my new ideas for the story, which are fairly significant, so I'm going to start publishing them as a different story instead of updating chapters here. As a result, this story will eventually be deleted. I'll keep it up for now, in case people want to check back and see where to find the new story. It can be found by going to my profile and clicking on the story "The Legend of Ganon". Thanks!**


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